A Simple Life In An Extraordinary World
by AnneElizabethBee
Summary: She was just a sickly girl back home, living her short life to its fullest. She was supposed to die, but she woke up in an entirely new world as a completely different person in a baby's body.
1. Chapter 1 - Living simply

Chapter 1 – Living Simply

Summary: She was just a sickly girl back home, living her short life to its fullest. She was supposed to die, but she woke up in an entirely new world as a completely different person in a baby's body.

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"Are you happy, Melody?" Her mother's comforting voice cut through the haze of her numbing senses. It was almost over. All of her senses were starting to feel dull. She could barely see, her vision like a long narrow tunnel, and the light at the end was a mass of blur and gray. She could still hear the music that her mother was playing for her on the guitar, though it sounded like a muted thrum. She could feel her father's warm touch on her hands, but it was so faint. The usual aseptic smell of medicine and flowers of the hospital was also dull now, although there were still hints of it. She could feel herself fading away.

But she'd rather be here than anywhere else in the world.

She felt her lips curve in response to her mother's question. "I am happy, mom. Thank you….mom, dad…..for everything."

The strumming of the guitar stopped. She felt her mother wrap her arms around her shoulders and sobbed quietly on her shoulders. Her father wrapped his arms around them, burying his nose in her hair.

"I am glad, my darling girl. You should be happy." She squeezed Melody lightly, conveying her desire to hold on to her for a long time. But even her mom knew that it was really almost over.

Melody was only 19 years old, but it was already a blessing that she got to live this long. She had been sick from birth, and the doctors predicted that her life expectancy would only be 5 years. But she had made it and lived for such a longer time than expected. And for that, she was very happy.

The hospital was her second home. She had been in and out of it so frequently that she spent more time there than her actual house. And every time they came in, they always prepared themselves for the chance that she would be gone. So she was very blessed from her perspective.

After she passed the doomed 5-year mark, her parents vowed that every day would be a new adventure for her. Her parents took her everywhere. And although she was very much protected, she observed the world with wide eyes full of excitement and wonder. She absorbed everything with a thrill. She knew that she would be gone soon so she tried to take everything in and appreciate the beauty of life.

Her parents also wanted her to socialize, so they tried to enroll her in fun classes, like music and instruments. They found out later on that Melody was in fact, an introvert. She kept to herself, but not unkindly. She was quiet but her bright smile made everyone feel comfortable around her. They just knew that she was a gentle soul. She enjoyed those classes, although she was shy performing herself and kept an interested eye on everyone else. She liked watching people and understanding them.

As she grew older, she came to loving and appreciating life more. She expressed her love through music, and people would gather around her as she sang songs of happiness, joy, and experiences. She thought that this would be her legacy to the world. When she was gone, maybe people will hear her songs and remember her short but sweet life.

When she finally grew weaker, her mother learned how to play the guitar. Melody's own fingers had been too weak to play, and her voice became too hoarse. So her mother and father would sing her to sleep every night. She wasn't afraid as she felt her own body failing her. She had a full life even in just 19 years. She had seen the world and she had loved people quietly. She had shared her music. And she had given her heart to her awesome parents.

She couldn't ask for anything more. Perhaps she secretly wished for a normal life. But she knew that what she had was a blessing, and she learned so much more knowing that her life could end at any moment.

"Melody, would you like to watch the television?" Her mother asked her softly. It was futile of course. She could barely see now so it would be useless to try and watch. But aside from music and adventure, she and her parents bonded over the anime called Naruto. It was a great story about dreams, hope, adventure, and friendship. Her mom used to reference Naruto's speeches when she was teaching Melody the value of loyalty and keeping promises. Her dad always focused on the cool action, but he taught her the value of never giving up and hard work through it.

At her last moments, it seemed nice to watch Naruto, the story she grew up with, as she came to her end. It seemed poetic, if nothing else.

So she nodded weakly. As expected, she could barely understand what was playing. But she could hear the usual loud voice of Naruto. She smiled, wishing she could jump out of bed and scream "I'll never give up." Then somehow, she'll be okay, like Naruto.

But of course, it wasn't going to happen.

Her mom and dad slept next to her that night, their heads resting on her bed as they sat beside her. Melody urged them to go home. But they insisted to stay. Melody fell asleep clutching both their hands and hearing their last song for her.

The next morning, she didn't wake up anymore.

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Melody wasn't sure what heaven was supposed to be like. But she didn't expect it to be quite like this. She felt very cold, she shivered under what felt like blankets. She tried to open her eyes wider but everything was so blurry. She thought that maybe she was still alive, but upon looking around her, she knew that the silhouette of her surroundings wasn't familiar. Wherever she was, this wasn't home nor was this the hospital.

She tried calling her parents, but she only managed to make a garbled sound. It was strange. She thought her voice had gone hoarse already because of her sickness, but this was different. She could hear how loud she can voice out, but she couldn't speak. It was like her tongue couldn't curl properly to say the words. Her tongue felt small. So did her arms. She could move them again, unlike in her hospital state where she could barely lift a finger. This time, she could definitely swing her arms. But they were short and small. Her legs were too, short and stout.

She couldn't see all of this properly, but it felt like she shrunk.

She squinted and tried to look around. It looked like she was lying down on someone's front door.

She tried to scream for help again, confusion and panic flooding her mind. She felt so alive, despite her unusual circumstance. She didn't feel tired as she screamed and screamed, trying to get anyone to notice her. She felt very cold, and all she wanted was to go somewhere warm.

Miraculously, someone finally opened the door. It was a giant.

Melody couldn't be sure, but the giant was big enough to pick her up and curl her up in its arms. Melody didn't feel afraid though, the touch of the giant was comforting and warm as it swayed while holding her. She felt sleepy but finally safe. She smiled at the giant, feeling her eyes drooping. She wasn't sure why she was tired. She just woke up after all. But as lively as she was earlier, all the screaming must have taken a toll after all. She rested her head on the giant's chest and used the beating of its heart to fall asleep.

She heard that giant cooed and "aww"-ed as she continued swaying her.

She fell asleep contentedly.

It took several months afterwards to realize that she turned into a baby. Her vision began to clear, and she only began to realize just how small she was. She saw herself in a large mirror and grew absolutely still on the rest of the next days from shock. Her caretaker panicked and took her to a doctor. She was fine of course, but her doctor attributed it to a nightmare. Maybe it was a nightmare. But time had already passed by and she knew how real everything felt, the pain and the joy, and all the details around her.

But for those several months of near blindness, which she assumed was because her eyes weren't developed enough yet to really see clearly, she was actually just contentedly going along with it. Of course, she cried and cried over the next few days from when she was found because of confusion. Somehow, being a baby made her react like one. She wasn't a crier back then in her old life, she would just smile and think her way out of depressing situations. But being reverted back into an infant made all her emotions amplified. Her confusion and frustration terrified her young heart so much that crying was her only sensible way to release it.

It was even worse when 2 weeks after she was found at the front door, this massive suffocating air flooded the room. She wasn't sure what it was, but it scared the hell out of her. More than that, she could hear blood curling screams outside. She could hear explosions, and she could practically smell death. Weirdly though, this was the one night when she decided not to cry. She gritted her teeth and hummed a tune. Music was always her remedy when she got too sad. She couldn't sing because of her messed-up tongue, but she could still hum a tune. She was frightened to death, though she couldn't understand why. It was the air and the feeling all around. Whatever caused it, it was wreaking havoc outside. So Melody shut her eyes and hummed.

This amazed the adults around her of course. 2 weeks old and already forming a tune. She was named "Sara", comforting music. When Melody knew about it later on, she decided she liked it. It was almost strange that she was named after music in her first life, and yet again here in her new life. Maybe music had always been her fate.

The caretaker who got her from the front door was panicked and exhausted by the time she finally stopped crying. She was taken to a doctor, given shots and medicine, and they thought that maybe one of those efforts finally worked on her. But the truth was, she just decided to go along with it. It seemed silly to embrace the situation as it was without really understanding, but Sara had learned to take things in stride. Crying achieved nothing. She was safe anyway so she decided to relax and observe.

She was fed, clothed, cuddled, and sung to. She was contented, if nothing else. It did make sense when her vision finally cleared and she saw her surroundings and herself. She went into shock. But she didn't cry again. She decided to embrace it as it was. Unfortunately, she couldn't understand anything that the people were saying. She did hear some familiar words being spoken to her. "Akachan" when people refer to her, and "Aishiteimasu" when her caretaker sways her to sleep. Akachan meant baby, while "Aishiteimasu" meant I love you.

They were speaking Nihongo, Japanese language.

Sara bit her lip at that. It seemed like she was reborn in Japan, and now she needed to learn the language. As a baby though, she knew she'd be given ample time to learn it.

Was it weird for her that she was reborn? Did it freak her out that her nineteen-year old self was inside an infant's body? Of course it did. But she couldn't really do anything about it. She literally couldn't even stand up on her own, or even utter a single word.

She also realized that she was at an orphanage. She looked around her and noticed dozens of children running about. There were also some other babies rolling around and minding their own business. She wasn't really miffed by that. Some would say her parents died. But to her, she knew that she was the one who died on her parents. It was a blessing in disguise because she honestly couldn't see herself having new parents in this new world. Her parents were her heart and soul in her first life. As long as she remembered them, they would always have a special place in her life.

So even if she couldn't bring her parents here in her new life, she would still dedicate this one to them. She vowed to live a happy life, just as she had been happy in her previous life. She might grow as an orphan, but she will always remember her parents' love and care to get her through this new era.

But it was approximately a year later when she found out that not only was she reborn in an infant's body, she was also born in a village surrounded by a forest, in a world where physics was completely messed up and the biology of people were built differently. She was taken out before but only a short distance from the orphanage, to greet some people and maybe show her off to potential adopters. But it was only a year later when her caretaker decided to take her out as she shopped in the market. Sara was right there, in her caretaker's arms when she stared up at the mountain.

There she saw 4 great faces carved on its side.

Hashirama Senju, Tobirama Senju, Hiruzen Sarutobi, and Minato Namikaze.

She was staring up at the Hokage rock.

She was in Konoha.

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	2. Chapter 2: Dreaming and blending in

Chapter 2 – Dreaming, wondering, and blending in

Summary: She was just a sickly girl back home, living her short life to its fullest. She was supposed to die, but she woke up in an entirely new world as a completely different person in a baby's body.

 **A/N: Yes, 2 weeks after she was found, that was when the Kyuubi appeared in Konoha.**

 **And I apologize because the story at this point is still largely narrative, and there is not much dialogue. But these are all just foundations to the main plot of the story. Much like a "Once upon a time". Bear with me please, thank you.**

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" _I have a dream, a song to sing_

 _To help me cope with anything."_

Sara strummed her guitar lightly as she sang sweetly. She was singing a song from her previous life, but tricky as it was to maintain the melody and tune while converting the lyrics to Japanese, she was a musician and lyricist at heart so she pulled it off. She even adapted the melody of the song to the trend of music here. It was not an easy feat, but she thought she did a great job.

She glanced down at the cloth she laid down in front of her, it was full of money as usual, so she knew she did great. But maybe the people of Konoha were just generous. Or maybe they thought she was adorable because she was just 4 years old and she was already performing in the street. Then again, it might be that her performance was just really great.

Whatever their reason was for giving her money, she was glad they did.

If her singing would get her this constant amount of money, maybe she'll be able to enroll herself in the Academy when she turned 6.

She thought about her past 4 years since she was dropped off on that front door.

Years had passed by quickly from the moment she found out she was in Konoha. When she saw the Hokage Rock, she went into shock again, and she had to be taken to a doctor once more. The caretaker almost branded her as sickly because it was the second time she had to be taken there due to shock. But Sara forced herself to look fine afterwards. She was already sickly in her previous life. She didn't want to be sick this time, she just wanted to be normal for once.

Of course, normalcy was thrown away when she found out that she was born into the ninja world. How that happened was beyond her. How was she resurrected into a fiction world written by Kishimoto? Who was she here? Where were her parents? What in the world was she supposed to do now?

These questions flooded her mind, even as she pretended to play with the cheap plastic toys the orphanage gave her. That was why she went into shock again, her young mind uncomprehending of how or why she ended up here.

Truthfully though, as confused and restless as she was, she was really excited to go through it all. Every Naruto fan wanted to end up here after all. She was born into a new world she could explore, a different adventure, and a different experience to have.

The caretaker was careful not to take her out again after she went into shock at the market place. It was a shame because she yearned to see ninja prowling about and using their techniques. It was silly to expect seeing them though. She was at the far end of the village in the poorer civilian section. The orphanage she was in was a different one from Kabuto's in the series. It was also different from the one Naruto stayed in until he was capable enough to live on his own (which he was allowed to do at 6 years old. Why the Hokage thought he could live alone at that age was a mystery.) Naruto was luckier though because despite his status as a menace/monster, his parents were still Minato and Kushina, and they left a small fortune for him. So he could afford getting his own place. Sasuke had the whole Uchiha's fortune to himself so he could also afford being on his own.

Sara imagined that it would be a different case for her. She was just left at the front door. She vaguely wondered if she had actual parents here in the ninja world. Whatever the case was, no one left her anything. In her orphanage, they were all civilians cramped in this small building. It wasn't a popular one too so parents who wanted to adopt rarely came.

But of course, Sara was sunshine personified. She was happy all the same, realizing that she was a healthy baby girl. During her 1st year, she was only sent to the hospital twice. Her mom told her that she had to stay half the time at the hospital since she was born in that other life.

As much as Sara wanted to explore though, she knew she was far too young with her 1-year old of age. So she decided not to sulk about it and focus on learning her new language. It was impressive that just a month after her shock, she could already speak basic Japanese fluently. Of course, the moment her vision cleared, which was just a few months after she was found on the front door, she had already focused on learning it. There wasn't really much you can do as an adult in a baby's body.

She would watch the adults speak and try to put contexts in it. It was a difficult guessing game. But 1 year and one month of doing nothing but staring at the adults and comprehend their conversations made it successful for her. In mornings when all the babies at the orphanage were causing chaos, she would slowly attempt to pronounce her new words. Her tongue was still wobbly, but she could manage after several tries. Many would say that she should have done this at night instead when everyone was asleep, if she intended on hiding it. But she thought that a chaotic morning where nothing can be heard over the wailing of the babies was better than a completely silent nighttime where a single word would echo all over.

And yes, she intended on hiding it. It wouldn't do for them to mark her down as a prodigy or as a genius. Because she wasn't. She was just unfortunate enough to have an earlier 19 years of memory. Especially, since she was in this world, it would be dangerous for anyone to put expectations on her.

So she kept quiet and hid that she could already understand them just a month after her 1st birthday. She didn't speak, and only followed the usual baby timeline. She started speaking out a few words when she was 2 years old, even though at that time, she could have definitely hold full in-depth conversations if she wanted to.

Soon, she started getting her hands on books. Even in her past life, she always loved reading. She travelled a lot with her parents so she had many great experiences, but reading was the travelling of the mind. After she learned the language, she focused her attention on learning to read. It wasn't as hard as learning how to listen to and speak the language. She would just let a caretaker read stories to her. Later on, she would get the same book and pore over it, determining which words the caretakers read.

It took her only 2 months to get it down. That meant even before her 2 years of age, she already knew how to read, write, and speak.

It surprised her entirely to realize that her memory was great in this world. When she learned how to read, she realized that she possessed a true photographic memory. It only took one glance to understand and recall a page she was reading. Soon, she was breezing through books like nobody's business.

In her past life, she wasn't exposed to much academics. Her parents thought she would only live up to 5 years, so they turned her attention to arts and experiences instead. She never went to school, although her mother did tutor her in general knowledge. So she never really got to test the extent of her mental capabilities. She wondered if she always had photographic memory and she just never utilized it when she was reading story books before, or was it something that developed here in this super powered world.

She did know that her parents were great academics. Her father was a theoretical physicist and cosmologist while her mother was a biomathematician. When Sara was born, her parents laid back on their work schedules to spend time with her. But she always knew that her parents were great people in their own fields. Their living room had numerous awards, certificates, and plaques spattered about. She never gave it much thought before because her parents were just her parents to her. It didn't matter that they were super brainiacs. All she knew was that she loved them with all her heart.

But now, as she read three books at the same time, her eyes glancing at the pages in just 3 seconds before moving to the next one, she wondered if maybe she inherited that kind of genius after all.

Not that she let anyone see just how smart she was becoming in less than 2 years old. She still didn't want to be deemed _special_ in the ninja world.

When she reached 2 years old, the children were finally allowed to go to the park to play. She told her caretaker that she wanted to go to the library instead. Surprised as her caretaker was, she was allowed to go there, since it was only a block away from the park. The librarian was a friend of the caretaker so the librarian was asked to look after her.

At first, she only read story books to push away suspicion. She was just 2 after all, and she chose to go to the library instead of playing at the park. So the adults kept an eye on her, but she easily misled them by happily telling her fellow orphan mates about the stories she read at the library.

The children loved listening to her because she always told the story with a lot of action and enthusiasm. It was really because it was nice to share dreams and wonder to these lost children. Sara might prefer to be shy and on her own, but she loved everyone around her all the same. The caretakers adored her, so did the other children, so they branded her off as just a bookworm.

As soon as she felt the prying eyes gone, she moved on to reading about chakra and ninja basics.

So what was she doing?

Honestly, Sara was just learning about this ninja world with as much passion as she could give. She was fascinated by ninjas, and how they came to be. She was born sickly and weak, but now she pored over the texts and she could see the potential to be super. It wasn't the idea of power that attracted her to learning so much about it. It was the idea of becoming stronger, body, heart and soul. Strong enough to spread love, dreams and hope, just as she was given in her darkest days. Maybe she wanted to help, maybe she wanted the strength, but all she knew was that this world was magic. And at 2 years old, if she wasn't allowed to explore around, then she would travel with her mind, through the books.

So she read and read and learned so much about the world and the basics of being a ninja. In 3 months, she was able to read half of the required knowledge for the academy's whole curriculum. She would need more practical application but as of now, she knew and understood enough.

Before she was 3 years old, the caretakers found out about her desire to become a ninja. They warned her that they didn't have much money, so they really couldn't enroll her to the ninja academy. But Sara was determined, she vowed that she would save for it herself. The caretakers sadly nodded their heads in tolerance, knowing that a three-year old couldn't possibly save up enough to enroll herself.

This was when she started singing in the streets. She crafted her own guitar from left over firewood and strings from compiled fallen animal hair. It was a lot of work, but she managed. She made the caretaker accompany her to the more crowded and well-off parts of the civilian sector and sing there, with a washed-up blanket in front of her and a winning smile.

It wasn't long before the adorable singing 3-year old with a dream caught the attention of the crowd. Sara put her best charming smile on and sang her heart to reach out to all the people. Being a 3-year old was already an advantage, having a dream she can't have was another. But more than that, Sara took her enchanting voice from her previous life to this new one. She had an angel's voice. And everyone was easily put under her spell.

On her third birthday, her usual audience all pitched in to grant her birthday wish, the most expensive seal weights there were. She knew she was heavily hinting on wanting it, but its sheer price left her in doubt if they would actually get it for her. Opening her gift and finding it left her in tears. She stood on tiptoes all day to kiss everyone on the cheeks. Behind them, the caretaker was crying in joy for her.

She wanted seal weights because she thought that learning how to manipulate her strength and chakra as early as now would be a good investment. She could have gotten something like Lee's, but it would be bulky, and she was too young to handle those weights.

The seal weights weren't as obvious. They looked like fitted wrist bands and ankle bands. She could wear them and it would look like mere accessories. But they were weights. She could adjust how heavy it should be. And it was stretchable so she could use them for the years to come when her arms and legs grow. This was why it was expensive. It was intricate and it looks like a part of clothing, but it could weigh a hundred grams if you want it to, and no one will know.

In her head, she knew that if Lee took a year to get that fast, starting at 3 would make her as fast as lightning! More than that, it was an exercise of chakra control too. She set the weights heavier than what her actual 3-year old body could handle. So she would need to continue purging out chakra and circulating it to the right muscles to make herself stronger. It was delicate and it injured her a dozen times before she got it right. Of course, she kept them a secret to her caretakers, or they would confiscate the seals.

But when she finally got it, she focused on circumventing the chakra properly. And she knew that if she kept doing it, soon she could control her chakra like instinct.

With her weights, she finally started applying everything she learned. She developed a special routine for herself, carefully evaluated from all the exercises and training methods she read. But she couldn't go to a training ground without arousing suspicion. So she would just go to the edges of some woods to practice. From afar, it looked like she was just exploring, maybe looking for bugs and insects like the other kids. But in truth, she was practicing her katas and her attacks and defenses. She didn't really have equipment yet like shuriken or kunai, but she fashioned some substitutes like pointed twigs and rocks to practice on.

She had to be wary of details to make it feel like a real thing. She was particularly accurate in the weight and pointedness of her inventions. She needed to make it like the real thing so she could practice for the real thing when she was finally allowed to handle them.

More than Taijutsu and chakra control, she was interested the most in seals. She was staring at the seal on her weights one day when she wondered how it was constructed; a seal on a cloth that can make it weigh a whole tire if adjusted so. She studied the symbols and the lines and wondered if they were all there to affect something that made it function.

So she went to the library to ask for books about it.

Surprisingly, the librarian firmly refused to give her a book on it. She said it was highly advanced and Sara shouldn't be playing around with it.

Sara wasn't an idiot. She was mature for her age (immensely so) and she knew better than to mess with something she couldn't understand. But she knew her own limits. It didn't change the fact that she wanted to learn about those seals. Maybe she would study them for a long time until she was ready. But she wanted at least a chance to learn about them, not shut out completely like this.

It was at this time that she finally encountered _the_ Naruto.

She was walking around, stomping her foot in frustration from the librarian's flat out rejection when a loud explosion startled her. The caretaker immediately scooped her up in her arms and took several steps back.

Then suddenly, a dozen ANBU came running about, splattered with different colors of paint. And above them running up on the roofs with a gleeful laughter was a flash of bright orange and sunny blond hair.

It was Naruto, holding cans of paint in his hands as he wreaked havoc on the respectable ANBU.

The other villagers stared in horror. But Sara bit her lip to stop herself from laughing out loud. It was really a funny sight if people would stop being biased about it.

Naruto caught sight of her and saw her smiling wide. He winked at her and declared himself a genius before he ran away, the exasperated ANBU on his tail.

Sara swooned in giddiness. It wasn't that she was enamored with Naruto. It was just that THE NARUTO actually winked at her. She mentally danced in glory and screamed "sucker" to everyone else in her previous world. She saw the hero in the flesh. All the other Naruto fans would die of envy.

She was giggling on the way home, with the caretaker eyeing her in amusement. The caretaker didn't really understand why she was so happy, but Sara's joy had always been infectious.

As Sara slept that night, she started plotting on how to convince the librarian to give her the basics of fuinjutsu, seal making. She knew that she only needed the basics, and from there she can work up to learning the more complicated ones. She thought fuinjutsu was like math. It all had basic formulas and mathematical rules that you would need to follow. The more complicated formulas are rooted from there. Maybe she would still need more references in the future. But she knew learning the basics would get her a long way.

The next day, she got some of her orphanage friends to come to another park on the other side of the village. Suspiciously, it was the same park Naruto was in. They played in a sand box near a swing set where Naruto was alone. Sara sparked a loud conversation about the ingenious idea of pranking in front of the library. The library was supposed to be a quiet place, and it was the haven for academics. It would be like "pulling the stick out of their asses." The caretakers came at Sara and scolded her for having such a crude language. As they went home, Sara sneaked a peek at the hyped-up Naruto who had a mischievous smile on his face.

That afternoon, Sara hovered in front of the restricted section, casually humming and reading a fairy tale. It didn't take long before an onslaught of small animals (rabbits, birds, frogs, insects) invaded the street in front of the library. Immediately, everyone jumped up and rushed to the window to spot the menace in orange.

Nobody noticed the little girl who disappeared.

It hadn't been long since Sara had started training with chakra. At this point she was just 3 after all. But she had a really small chakra capacity because she was civilian, and she was really young. It wasn't hard at all to try and control it. Let alone hide it. Sure, if someone was actively seeking for her, it would be easy to spot her. Or if someone was paying attention, she wouldn't be hard to find. But as it is, the great distraction outside gave her all the factors she needed to disappear into the shadows.

She knew where the books she needed were. She was always observant even in the library. So even if she never borrowed from the restricted section, she would watch older people borrow there and she would glance at the librarian fetching it. Her photographic memory allowed her to remember where the librarian headed off to for each book the readers borrowed and returned. As such, she knew where books on seals would be.

She quickly snatched the whole course of basic sealing, and lugged the heavy books out on the back. Her caretaker was too busy gaping at the boy setting loose animals on the street. She hid the books somewhere at the back door and swiftly returned to her peaceful place in the library. Soon enough, Naruto was taken away and the commotion was settled down.

She pretended to still be reading there, minding her own business.

When night came and everyone was sleeping, Sara sneaked out and retrieved a total of 20 books from the backdoor of the library. The whole course was lengthy because of the strict instructions on sealings.

Would someone notice that 20 books had gone from the restricted section? Maybe. But Sara craftily shook some shelves in the restricted section so the books would fall off. She also left behind some fur and feathers, so it looked like some animals from the earlier prank just happened to infiltrate the room.

Was it fair for her to use Naruto like that? Probably not.

What was she planning to do anyway?

Should she be focusing on planning to change things instead? Every fanfiction she read about original characters getting sucked into Naruto all attempted to change things for the better. Maybe it worked, maybe it didn't. All she knew was that everything in the canon story played an essential part towards the original happy ending of Naruto.

Changing anything was frightening and unstable.

Sara decided to deliberately leave Naruto alone. She knew that Naruto's loneliness was important. This isolation would cause him to crave the attention of everyone, building his dream to become Hokage, the figure that everyone looked up to. This dream was vital to the whole story, so she needed to let him feel it. She needed to let him develop his dream. He had to feel abnormal and without attention so he would even have the slightest desire to be Hokage.

It was a cruel thing to do, but Sara felt trapped. She knew what would happen, and she knew just how important every piece of the timeline was. For example, Sasuke needed to go to Orochimaru because he would be infinitely stronger there. Orochimaru may be a crazy and evil man, but he was still a genius. He would show Sasuke the ropes on how to utilize his powers better. He would give him the snake contract, which Sasuke used even during the war. Naruto would also frantically try to improve to catch up to Sasuke because of this. He would push himself to learn Rasenshuriken after being beaten around by Sasuke when they found him 3 years after Sasuke left the village.

There was also the 4th shinobi world war. As frightening as it sounded, it was also an essential harm. The Shinobi alliance would be created because of this war. Maybe it was overkill, but Tobi was going to find a way to do this anyway no matter what she did. Better let this war from the canon story happen, knowing that everyone would overcome it.

And a lot more essential story routes.

She contemplated this for a long time as she pretended to play with her toys. The truth was, messing with the story might mess up the essential elements which led to the happy ending of Naruto.

She was lucky she wasn't born into one of the main characters. Now she could sit back and watch. All she wanted was to live the life of a stronger ninja, survive the coming war, and help people in need. She could watch the story of Naruto unveil in front of her and possibly aid as one of the normal kunoichi on hand.

Or so she thought.

She spent the next years just developing herself. She didn't play a lot so she had massive times to just focus on training. And she was dedicated too because she was fascinated on how mobile her body was as compared to her sickly form back then. She was also thrilled at chakra and the techniques she learned. Every fan would probably spend years doing the same thing, watching in fascination as you sprout fire from your fingertips and other magical things.

She continued singing in the streets, and soon, she finally saved enough for her enrollment.

She was 6 years old.

And it was the start of the school year.

Was it a coincidence that she decided to enroll along the rookie 9?

Not really. She may have decided to step back, but she still wanted a front row seat on the action.

With the many kisses from her caretakers and friends, she hunched up her heavy bag and skipped excitedly to the academy.


	3. Chapter 3: Friendships

Chapter 3 – Friendships

Summary: She was just a sickly girl back home, living her short life to its fullest. She was supposed to die, but she woke up in an entirely new world as a completely different person in a baby's body

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"What are you working on this time, Sara?" A soft voice whispered over her shoulder.

Sara looked over at an adorable girl with short, dark blue hair, kept just above her forehead with chin-length strands framing her face. The sun was high above their heads but she wore a cream-colored hooded-jacket with a fire symbol on the upper sleeves and fur around the cuffs and hem. Sara didn't judge, ninja could wear whatever they like in whatever weather as long as they could regulate their chakra to control their body heat.

"Hey Hinata, Good Morning. I'm just trying to see if I can make the chakra capacity of these chakra storage seals larger." Sara gestured at her notes. It didn't look exactly positive because she scratched off a lot of errors everywhere. She sighed, massaging her temples.

Sara glanced at her own reflection on the window. Her long black hair was braided from the top of her head. Her soft big black eyes were trained on herself. She wore a gray shirt and black pants. Her seal weights, wrist bands on each hand, showing. She always liked to keep things simple. She often wondered why ninjas make such a fuss about their outfit.

Hinata giggled. "But do you still need to make them larger? I think your seal now has a decent capacity. B-but I'm not really s-sure."

Sara threw an exasperated look at Hinata, making the other girl blush and twiddle her fingers.

"U-Ummm.."

"You're right Hinata, as always. Don't second guess yourself. It is decent now of course, but I might need more chakra in the future so I'm seeing if I could extend it. But yes, it is pretty decent now." Sara says in approval, assuring Hinata.

Hinata had always been really shy in the anime. But meeting her in the flesh made Sara realize just how unsure she was of herself.

Sara didn't really intend to make friends with Hinata. It just happened. On her first year in the Academy, she kept her distance from the Rookie 9. She watched them with awe in her eyes and observed the chibi version heroes of the future. She was quiet but quick to smile and friendly to anyone who talked to her. But like in her past life, she would sit alone and read a book in peace.

Ino had tried to include her in large groups. Ino was the kind of popular girl who had a kind heart and didn't want to exclude people. She already had Sakura behind her and also introduced Sakura to other people to increase her confidence. Sakura was shy but she was excited to meet new people.

Ino probably saw how Sara would keep to herself too. So she warmly invited Sara to gatherings and friendly outings to make her feel part of the group. But Sara was truly happy to be alone. So she graciously humored Ino, but stayed on her own in breaks anyway.

Besides, Sara was the kind of introvert who didn't come off as snobbish or frightened of social niceties. She looked like a happy bookworm who was comfortable with her books. So people left her alone, and Ino soon understood this, just cheerily waving from a distance when she spotted her.

In Sara's state of solitude though, Hinata would always be right beside her coincidentally.

Sara usually picked a lunch table at the far ends so she could watch other people during lunch. At that far end, Hinata would also be quietly eating. During class, Sara would choose to sit at the very back. Hinata would also be sitting by that spot. During academy physical trainings, unlike other students, Sara would choose a spot where it was covered and secluded. Other students prefer to train somewhere more open and public to show off. Hinata would be near Sara's training spot to hide away.

And more coincidence, Hinata and Sara both walked the same way home. They usually never talked to each other. They share a comfortable space between them even though they chose the same space to be isolated in.

Hinata was the heiress of the Hyuga clan so Sara really didn't plan to interact with her. But it couldn't be helped in the end.

It was at that late lunch time, Sara had a thick book about the balance of natural affinities in seals out while she ate. She had small dry fish and one-half rice packed. The orphanage wasn't getting a lot of funds these days and the caretakers decided to focus their expenses on the younger kids. Sara didn't mind, of course. But it still left her a little hungry at times.

Hinata was seated beside her again, at the far end table away from everyone else. She brought out her lunch pack and produced a bowl of rice (gohan), a bowl of miso soup (miso shiru), pickled vegetables (tsukemono), fish and meat.

It was a damn full course meal. Nothing less for the little heiress after all. Sara caught sight of it and she felt hungrier, seeing the heavy meal just beside her. Despite the less food intake, Sara continued her intense physical training. She increased the weights every quarter and ran around Konoha 10 times every day. She did specific exercises for arm and leg strengthening, flexibility, speed and agility, and so on. The lack of food left her half dead every session. But she didn't want to slow down her pace.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, conditioning herself to feel okay with her measly meal.

"D-Do y-you l-like t-to sh-share w-with m-me?" The voice was so soft that Sara wasn't sure she heard it. Her eyes snapped open and she stared at the little princess. Hinata was fiddling with her fingers nervously. But she looked at Sara and tried her best to smile. It was adorable.

"I-I h-have t-too m-much f-food. D-do y-you w-want s-some?" She was stuttering so bad, which meant that she must really be frightened to ask her. But she was kind enough to try and overcome her fear just to share her food with a hungry classmate. Sara felt a rush of affection for the sweet girl. She smiled widely and scooted closer.

"Thank you, Hinata chan." She said gratefully. Hinata was red now, but she still smiled back. "J-Just H-Hinata p-please."

Sara tilted her head. "Just Sara too then."

That was the start of their close friendship. It was a slow building friendship because they just stick together since they want the same space. But it did build through time.

In the classroom, Sara offered to help Hinata with her homework. And they deliberately walk together now when they go home. Sara would also train with Hinata during the academy training sessions.

They often share just companionable silence between them. But they also chatter about everyday stuff and talk about their observations of their classmates. Hinata was a pretty observant person after all. It never showed in the anime, but because she was always just silently in the back, she had a pretty good judgment on people around her. Sara would fascinatedly share her comments with the shy girl.

Befriending Hinata was tricky for Sara. She was afraid that this friendship might change something in the canon timeline. This was the reason why she chose to stay away from the Rookie 9 no matter how tempting it was to get involved with them.

For example, her heart broke for little Naruto who was shunned by everyone and laughed at. She was tempted so bad to jump to his defense once, or even just sit with him one time just to talk to him. Besides her, she knew Hinata would really like to do the same. Hinata would sometimes bravely attempt to engage with him, but it was always somehow foiled. With every failed attempt, Hinata got more and more scared to try again.

 _Well, it's because it's not yet time for you two._ Sara thought to herself as she watched the crestfallen Hinata. It was true. Several events would lead them to fall in love. Hinata's sacrifice when she faced Pein was the first one. Neji's death was next. The whole shebang on the last movie was another. A lot of things happened before they finally truly connected. But those events made them a strong couple.

Sara, on the other hand, couldn't take Naruto's suffering. She knew that it had to happen. But she didn't like it. So she sneakily went around it. She would leave various stuff for Naruto. She got cool prank material, sweets, and various stuff in the hopes of cheering him up and leave them on his class seat or in front of his worn-down apartment.

She managed to cajole Hinata into doing them too, much to the latter's joy. Hinata probably wanted to do them in the first place but she was too scared to get caught. But with Sara, they were able to gather a lot of random stuff that made Naruto brighten up when he found them. They regularly did this.

Sara didn't dare approach Naruto, but she hoped that her and Hinata's little tokens would make him a little bit happier, if nothing else.

When the Uchiha massacre happened, Sara wanted to comfort Sasuke so badly. He was just so broken when he finally showed up again at the Academy. The fangirls weren't helping, as they tried to talk to him and comfort him with words and hugs. This only angered Sasuke more.

It made Sara feel for Sasuke because he was just a young boy. He shouldn't have experienced such tragedy. Same with Itachi too. Itachi was just a boy, and he had to clinically kill all of his family. It was a horrible fate that befall the brothers. And Sara wished she could do something.

After some convincing, she finally convinced Hinata to go along with her plan. The two of them began cornering Sasuke. They didn't talk to him. They just stayed around him like a protective barrier. Like during lunch time, Sasuke would sit far away from everyone else. The girls would usually follow him and crowd him. But Hinata and Sara would get there first. They would sit beside him and in front of him.

The first time they did this, he had an enraged look in his eyes. He probably thought that they were one of those girls who thought they could fix him. But they practically ignored him and just began talking to each other. When girls started approaching their spot, they actively made an effort to distract anyone who would try to engage with Sasuke. They chattered about menial things that interested the other girls, so their focused stayed away from Sasuke.

This way, Sasuke was in the group but he was left alone. In the end of that lunch, Sasuke almost had a grateful look in his face as they moved away again. Hinata and Sara kept doing this for the next months, until he got himself together. They drifted away slowly, but Sasuke would always sit near them from then on.

That was especially hard for Hinata to do. She had to talk to other girls to distract them, and she needed to speak out loud. But the kind girl also felt sorrow for the broken boy. So she stepped out of her comfort zone to join Sara in protecting him. Sara really adored Hinata.

There were a lot more instances when Sara had to become involved with the Rookie 9. But she successfully evaded getting too connected to any of them. She didn't want to risk changing anything canonically. Except for Hinata. Sara absolutely loved the sweet princess. It was killing her not to help Hinata with her struggling confidence at first. She knew that Hinata had to attribute it all to Naruto. Naruto would be a strong inspiration for Hinata And Sara was scared that trying to inspire her now might be half assed as compared to the strength that Naruto would be able to give her.

But in the end, she just couldn't help it. She watched Hinata who didn't have an ounce of faith with herself but was eternally kind to other people. Sara wouldn't be able to live with herself if she just let her friend be. So slowly, she started encouraging Hinata. Throwing simple compliments to get her used to it and getting her to speak up with her ideas and thoughts. Sara slowly got her to speak more so she would get rid of her stutter, even if it's just between the two of them.

Sara also made Hinata tag with her during her difficult training sessions.

The first time Hinata joined her, Hinata was shocked at the intensity of it. She claimed to be dying just at the half of it. But Sara urged her to finish it, using positive push instead of scaring her like other trainers. Hinata couldn't handle the trainings everyday, so she only joined twice a week. But Hinata felt better focusing on getting stronger.

Of course, Sara's friendship with her was the most positive influence of all. Sara shared everything with Hinata, including her seal experiments and thoughts on her physical improvements. It made Hinata happier to know that someone trusted her on that level. It also made her speak up more because she knew Sara valued her thoughts and ideas.

It wasn't long before Sara received a dinner invitation from the Hyuga household.

It was definitely surprising and Sara panicked. She really wasn't supposed to get involved. The Hyuga clan was one of the biggest and most influential clan in Konoha. This invitation could go a lot of ways. Sara didn't want recognition at all. She just wanted to be invisible and watch the show. But she knew that going to the dinner was important to her friend, Hinata. So she mentally prepared herself and courteously showed up for dinner.

The dinner was simple enough. Only Hinata's actual family was there. For a moment, Sara was frightened that a lot of the Hyuga relatives would come. But there was only Hinata's dad Hiashi, Hanabi, and Hinata herself.

"I hear you've been doing well in school, Sara." Hiashi commented, his piercing eyes obviously assessing her. Sara briefly wondered if this was a test, to see if she deserved the companionship of their heiress.

Sara bowed her head meekly. "I work hard just like Hinata. My good results are only proof of it." She said humbly. She noticed Hinata threw a glance at her.

Hinata cleared her throat. "Sara is the top student in the academy. Not just the top Kunoichi, she's actually ranked 1."

That shocked Sara, for 2 reasons. One, Hinata spoke up to her father to praise her. This only spoke of the confidence she built up in her company. Hiashi was already frightening for her, what more for his daughters. Two, Sara honestly didn't know her rank. Was she really ranked 1? If she was, then that meant she had higher scores than even _Sasuke._ How did that happen?

"Am I?" She asked, waving it off. "I don't really know. It shouldn't matter."

Hiashi raised his brows at her. "Doesn't it? Rank is important as a shinobi. It will determine your career path, power and influence in the future."

Sara shrugged. "I don't see why it should be important. The life of a shinobi is about saving people's lives and using their strengths for peace. I know it's foolish to see it as simply as that. But this should be the core goal of this career anyway."

Hinata beamed at her, and Sara knew that they both share the same ideals. Hiashi stared at her impassively though. Sara wasn't sure what his final judgment of her was. Hiashi continued asking her questions about herself throughout dinner. But it was more relaxed and casual.

Hiashi invited her again for a training session in the morning.

This unsettled Sara. Why did Hiashi want her to join their training? Perhaps he was curious what the _top student_ had.

That was still an issue for her though. She honestly had no idea that she was ranked 1. She fathomed over the fact that she made it higher than both Sakura and Sasuke. It was true that she did ace every exam. She never made a single mistake since she entered. That was really because she already covered the academy material since she was 3 years old. In truth, she only kept one ear open when classes are conducted. What she actually does was pore over her sealing books or ninjutsu scrolls. She spent a lot of time studying new material in her classes. She aced every exam anyway.

It was also true that she never lost in one on one battle activities, not even against Sasuke. Those were troublesome to escape from. After she beat Sasuke the first time, every one of his fangirls began to be enraged. But she disappeared with Hinata right after, and people eventually calmed down. Sasuke stared at her with piercing eyes when she appeared again, but she and Hinata kept to themselves and chattered quietly. Sasuke sat near them as always and let it go after some time.

Sara was pretty forgettable when she wanted to be.

She needed to do something about that rank though. The ranking was one of the prime causes of those team ups and she really didn't want to mess that up. She still had some time though so she pushed the thought away from her mind.

That morning, Sara trudged her way to the Hyuga training grounds.

It was as grand as she expected it to be. As one of the main clans of Konoha, they made it a point to have large grounds as huge as the stadium for training. They have separate grounds for training and honing your skill, that one has various equipment scattered about, and another grounds for battles. One of the Hyuga greeted her at the gates of the compound and directed her towards the battling grounds.

Hinata and Hiashi were already there.

Hinata looked downright nervous. She was almost trembling, but she clenched her fists to hide it. Sara bet that her palms should be bruised by now. She wondered why her friend was so terrified.

"Good morning, Sara. I trust that you prepared for this morning?" Hiashi politely greeted.

Sara smiled at him and grinned at Hinata. Hinata relaxed minutely. "Well I had breakfast earlier, and I already did my warm ups around the village. So what will we be doing today?"

Hiashi tilted his head. "You will be sparring with my daughter."

Hinata squeaked.

 _Ahhh so this is why she's nervous. Hiashi is really intend on torturing his daughter._ Sara thought, glancing at her fidgeting friend. _Poor Hinata._

Sara knew what Hiashi was attempting to do. He wanted Hinata to harden and toughen up. She must have already lost to her sister at this point. Hiashi wanted to continue to push her. Sara considered throwing the match. But Hiashi would probably realize that anyway, and Hinata would too. It would hurt Hinata if she threw the match because she didn't trust that Hinata could beat her on her own.

So Sara squared her shoulders and nodded firmly. "Okay, I'm ready when you are, Hinata."

Hinata took a deep breath and stepped forward. Hiashi jumped out of the way and observed from above. Hinata crouched low to the usual Hyuga stance, with her palms up.

Sara and Hinata actually never sparred. Sara was amazed that she never thought of sparring with Hinata. She just thought that Hinata wouldn't like it because she was already so reluctant to hurt her sister in the anime, so Sara never suggested it. But now that she thought about it, sparring with Hinata would be helpful for the shy withdrawn girl.

Sara raised her fists up and heightened her chakra sensitivity. This was a practice that she had honed on for years. It was a weird habit, but she used to consciously try to feel the flow of chakra on people around her. It used to require extreme concentration. She would sit on the roof of the orphanage, close her eyes, and detect the people's chakra passing by. Over the course of time, she could do it without much effort now. She could even feel the massive reserves of chakra Naruto had over anyone else in class. She was also rarely surprised because she could detect the presence of someone approaching her.

She knew Hinata would use her Gentle Fist, so she wanted to really observe how that will go down.

Hinata activated her Byakugan, but Sara still spotted the pleading look in her eyes.

 _She doesn't want to attack first._

Sara sighed inwardly and poised to attack. She lounged on Hinata, carefully hitting softly at first to test the other girl's reflexes. Hinata was fast too but Sara could feel her hesitation. She took advantage of an opening and pushed a fist to Hinata's ribs. Hinata winced, but she quickly retaliated with a hit on her lower arm and on her thigh.

Sara felt it. On the outside, it looked like a mere gentle tap. But it was really a painful intrusion of sharp pointed chakra. The part Hinata hit numbed down considerably, and she knew that she had to move her chakra flow around them instead of through them now. Sara jumped back, and kept her eyes trained to Hinata's hands. She could feel Hinata's chakra, specifically the dense pointed chakra at the top of her fingers, like a pointed knife.

It fascinated Sara. She wanted to explore it more.

Sara attacked again, and she observed as Hinata tried to hit more of her tenketsu points. Sara consciously lessened her weights so she could move faster. Her own hands were carefully hitting away Hinata's fingers. She knew she shouldn't block Hinata's hands because Hinata would still be able to slice through. So she specifically hit Hinata's palms away instead.

But despite Sara shoving Hinata's hands away, she could see exactly where Hinata was aiming.

She watched Hinata try to hit several parts of her body. After seeing enough, Sara finally aimed to retaliate. She put her palms up and exerted chakra on the end of her fingers like a scalpel and quickly hit the same points that Hinata was trying to hit on her own body earlier. Hinata gasped in surprise, and tried to block her, but she was faster.

Sara aimed a final kick on her chest that threw Hinata back to a nearby tree.

Hinata exhaled hard and dropped to her knees. Sara walked up to her and offered a hand.

"Sara, Y-you…." Hinata took her hand, looking up at her with wide awed eyes.

Hiashi jumped back down to them. "I see. You used the same technique on my daughter?"

Sara blinked up at him. "Oh. Sorry, I was just fascinated how it went through. The Gentle fist is a graceful combat stye."

"B-but Sara, how were you able to channel chakra so dense on your fingers? Have you done this before?" Hinata asked with wonder.

Sara shrugged. "I need to have complete chakra control for my seals, remember? Some of them require the slightest quantity of chakra on one part, then flood a good amount on the other. I have a good hold on my chakra."

Hiashi nodded, his face carefully blank. "But the tenkutsu is still invisible to the naked eye. You shouldn't have known exactly where to hit."

"I have a good visual and accurate memory. I knew where Hinata was trying to hit me. It was a question of hitting her accurately on the same spots too." Sara was trying to be off handed about it. But she knew it was particularly dangerous to have copied their technique after a few minutes of looking at it. She was just so fascinated with it that she forgot herself for a moment.

It wasn't like it was easy anyway. She spent years from her birth here to perfect her chakra control, same with accuracy on her targets. May it be kunai or by hand, she knew how to hit specifically which part of her target. Her playtimes were all trainings since birth. So really, it was actually unfair to Hinata.

Hinata rolled her eyes at Sara, her face was turned away so her father couldn't see. Sara shook her head at her.

Hiashi stared at her for a long moment, probably assessing if she should be tied up and interrogated. Sara tried not to look too frightened. In the end, Hiashi turned away and started walking back.

"Well, you may resume your spar then." He said before he turned the corner and was gone from sight.

The both of them exhaled in relief. They turned to look at each other and giggled hysterically.

"Okay, that was so much pressure! Your father is scary." Sara said in between her giggles.

Hinata wiped a tear of laughter from her eyes. "He is. I thought for a second he's going to lock you up or something."

Sara gasped. "Shhhh don't say that. I really didn't mean to you know! Your style is just so awesome."

"But you beat it so easily." Hinata sighed, fiddling her fingers and looking down.

"That's because you were still holding back. You shouldn't be so nervous about hurting me you know. I bet you'd kick my ass if you took me seriously." Sara nudged Hinata's shoulder. "Those hits of yours hurt by the way."

Hinata rolled her eyes exaggeratedly this time. "But you didn't even flinch! Well no matter, my father clearly accepted you now. He told us to resume the spar so he's allowing us to stay together now."

"So it was a test after all!" Sara groaned. "You should have warned me!"

Hinata shook her head. "I knew you'd pass his silly test anyway. Dad probably saw how uncaring you are of power and status, so he must have known now that your friendship with me is genuine. You're an awesome friend."

"So are you." Sara beamed at the sweet girl. "So you want to continue that spar?"

Hinata nodded eagerly. "You have to tell me how you're so fast!"

"Oh that's because of the weights. You see…"

From that day on, Hinata and Sara constantly sparred with each other. Hinata showed Sara exactly where all the 361 nodes were and what they were for (Sara was sure her father would have disapproved of this) and Sara started Hinata out for weight training. Hinata purchased her own seal weights (which looked a lot more expensive) and increased the time she trained with Sara, running around the village with the full weights on.

Sara wasn't sure exactly how this will affect Hinata's growth. Neji needed to beat Hinata at the Chuunin exams so Naruto would vow to kick his ass in the next part. This would be the turning point of Neji's transformation. Sara was pretty sure that Neji was still leagues away, so she hoped that this training would at least decrease Hinata's near death consequences on that match.

Presently, Sara was trying to improve some of the seals she made. Sealing was her favorite hobby. From those basic books she got years ago, she learned the balance the seal requires and the many rules it needed to work. It was always difficult to come up with the right concoction. More than that, it also drained a lot of chakra. This was why it was discouraged for anyway lower than Jounin level to really access the art because of the difficulty and the complexity of the seals. Not even those Jounins are encouraged to mess around with it.

This was also why the Uzumaki clan was so good at making seals because they were born with heaps of chakra reserves to mold the seals.

That was the first challenge for Sara. At 3, her chakra was almost nonexistent. One of her first created seals therefore was the chakra storage seal. It took her 3 years to perfect. It was an extra storage seal for your chakra to flow. Attaching it to your body expands your chakra network. Of course, this was tricky because it meant redirecting your chakra flow to include the new network. This new network would allow you to expand the amount of chakra in your body. She could attach as many as she wanted of those seals to her body to make her chakra reserves larger and larger, but it would require more concentration because it needed constant conscious redirecting of chakra.

It was a band aid solution because it didn't make your actual reserves larger. But in the meantime, while she was still on the process of expanding her reserves, she would use them so she could activate her seals.

After she successfully attached her chakra storage to her body, she was finally able to create her own seals and activate them. It was fascinating for her to use math, physics and chemistry to create useful seals. It was a difficult study but she felt her parents channeling their genius to her whenever she had to balance the elements on the seals she was making.

Now, she was attempting to make the capacity of her chakra storage larger. So instead of attaching 10 to her body, she could attach just 5 and it would give you the same capacity. But it was proving to be difficult.

Sara groaned as she scratched off another potential formula.

Hinata giggled. "You're very dedicated."

Sara eyed Hinata's bruised fists. "So are you."

Sara raised her fist. "To being awesome kunoichis!"

Hinata shook her head with a soft smile. But she lightly tapped her knuckles to Sara's.


	4. Chapter 4: Invisible

Chapter 4- Invisible

Summary: She was just a sickly girl back home, living her short life to its fullest. She was supposed to die, but she woke up in an entirely new world as a completely different person in a baby's body

 **A/N: These are some scenarios of Sara's Academy days before the official team assignments.**

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" _Here's to the lives that you're gonna change_

 _Here's to the infinite possible ways to love you_

 _I want you to have it"_

Sara swayed her head, her long braid swinging behind her, as she sang heartily. The crowd around her clapped their hands to the rhythm of the song. She was glowing as she strummed her guitar, beaming at everyone who sang along. Not only was her voice magical, but her happiness was infectious. The crowd was swept away by her performance.

Past life, new life, ordinary person, ninja, through it all singing was always her favorite passion.

The blanket she laid down was full of coins again thanks to this gig. It was amazing how she was able to maintain her tuition in the Academy and buy ninja equipment without other means of support but just singing. Her caretakers at the orphanage were certainly very proud of her. The other children at the orphanage were inspired by her step up, so now they were all motivated to fight for their own dreams.

But really, Sara just felt lucky because she was able to take this talent from her past life to this new one. Singing had always been her coping mechanism, then and now.

After her song, she gracefully bowed down and sent flying kisses to her audience. The crowd cheered and some others came to her to embrace her.

"Hey you."

Sara turned towards the voice and found her friend, Hinata, waving at her with a smile. Sara raised her hand in greeting and signaled Hinata to wait. Sara scooped down her collections for today and packed up her guitar.

"Well you certainly had a packed crowd earlier." Hinata commented, gesturing to the dispersed crowd.

Sara shrugged. "It's Saturday. It's always full on weekends." She clapped her hands enthusiastically. "Tomorrow, I'll sing a set dedicated to you! Will you come?"

Hinata gasped, shaking her head. "No don't do that! That'll be embarrassing!"

Sara raised her brows teasingly. "I'll even call out your name and point you out."

Hinata hand covered her face, twitching at the image of it. "No. I'll totally faint on you. Then you'll have to explain to Tou-san why I'm dead on your arms."

"So melodramatic! I'm rubbing off on you little princess." Sara chuckled, nudging Hinata's shoulders. "Besides, you won't faint. You'll probably duck out of sight and threaten to punch me later. Note the word, _threaten,_ because you'll still be too nice to actually do it."

Hinata rolled her eyes. "I'll faint on you, _then_ punch you when I wake up."

"Nah. You totally won't. Besides, you only faint around Naru-"

Hinata's hand quickly clasped on her mouth, staring at her in panic. Sara laughed out loud, shaking Hinata off her.

"Shhh don't do that! You never know when he's around! He might be around the corner pranking someone!" Hinata's voice was so small now that Sara had to read her lips to fully understand the sentence.

Sara raised her hands in surrender. "Yeah yeah. But that boy is so dense that even if I say it to his face, he probably still won't get it."

Hinata giggled but shook her head. "No way. He'll get it if you say it clearly."

Sara mock gasped. "Does this mean you'll be confessing soon?! Aww my little baby is all grown up!"

Hinata turned red, her eyes widening. "No! Confess to who? Who's confessing? Who likes someone? Noone likes anyone."

Sara's eyes flickered with amusement. "You're so adorable." She reached Hinata's red cheeks and started pinching it.

Hinata sighed but she let her pinch away.

As they walked home in comfortable silence, Sara started humming her favorite songs in a medley.

Hinata listened to her and hummed along, all out of tune. Sara giggled.

"I wish I have a voice like yours." Hinata said wistfully. "I think it's nice to sing and tell stories with it."

Sara nodded in agreement. "Singing is definitely awesome. But you have talents of your own you know. You can make soft bean jams and cinnamon rolls like nobody's business. I can't cook an egg without burning it."

Hinata laughed. "That's because you don't even try! I told you I will teach you whenever you want."

Sara shrugged. "Yeah but there's so many other things to do. I'm still trying to perfect that other elemental seal I was making."

Hinata shook her head in disapproval but let it go. "You know what you should do? You should find a way to use singing in battles."

Sara blinked at that. "Huh. Like, maybe a genjutsu?"

"Yeah. Singing is sweet to the ears so the senses wouldn't try to reject it?" Hinata suggested in question.

Sara slowly nodded, ideas whirring in her head. "That's actually a pretty great idea, Hinata. See, you're pretty awesome too!"

Hinata waved it off. "Or maybe it's just me wanting to hear more of your songs. It would be relaxing when we're all tensed up in a battle field."

Sara shook her head, sticking her tongue out at her modest friend. "Nah. You're just awesome and you know it! You just gave me a brilliant idea! But…..don't tell this to anyone okay?"

Hinata rolled her eyes. "Of course I won't. Just like I didn't tell anyone that you're a super genius in seals."

Sara pushed Hinata lightly. "I'm not a genius at it. I just learn easy."

Hinata pushed her back. "You're a genius and you know it."

"Touche." Sara chuckled, shaking her head.

"I don't understand why you think you need to hide all your skills. One day, you'll fight all out and the teachers will have a heart attack." Hinata said, sighing.

Sara wrapped her arms around herself and looked up at the night sky. "A lot of things are about to happen. We just need to be prepared, that's all."

Hinata raised her brows at her curiously. Sara just shook her head and shrugged.

With Hinata's idea, Sara started playing with the possibilities in her head.

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Fighting Sasuke was like playing a game of chess.

Sasuke feinted a kick on Sara's chest, just to pull back and try to punch her abdomen. But it was another feint, he was really aiming to swing his punch then elbow her face. Sasuke always made an opponent think while fighting. On top of being a natural prodigy, this skill made him formidable. His hit was strong and precise, he was fast, and he was smart.

Sara wondered why then did it still feel easy for her. Maybe it was the years she invested in training. She did start torturing herself since she was 3. But she was pretty sure that Sasuke also trained from a very young age. He was able to master the fireball jutsu in no time after all. But Sasuke still had time to bother his brother. Sara focused on nothing else but improving all the aspects of herself.

It wasn't like she was trying to outdo people. She wanted to be invisible after all. It was just that she was so fascinated by her new body and everything that it could do. Well, she also wanted to survive the coming war so she was taking extra precautions.

As she evaded what could have been Sasuke's fifth attempt of trying to land a hit on her, she considered throwing the match. She didn't need to be the top 1 in the academy after all. Sasuke probably wanted it more. She suddenly wondered what his family had said when he couldn't get the top rank in the Academy while they were still alive. It was a subtle change she caused, and she didn't even notice it. She wondered if Sasuke hated her because of this.

Her mind was lost in thought as she continued stepping away from his hits. She could see that it was starting to frustrate him. She was going to throw the match one of these days. But she decided it wouldn't be today. Sasuke would be one of the heroes one day, she wanted him to see what he was doing wrong now.

So she finally made her move, not falling for his feints and hitting his last attack straight on. She caught his arm and twisted it around. He attempted to jump back to kick her, but she pushed down on 10 of his tenketsu on his legs in quick rapid successions. _The beauty of the gentle fist._ She winked at Hinata who was watching. Hinata grinned at her.

Sasuke winced, and that moment of pain gave way to an opening. She clutched his head and pinned him down to the ground, his arm still twisted around.

"Yield." Sasuke grumpily mumbled.

Iruka stood over them as she let Sasuke up, offering her hand in the seal of reconciliation. Sasuke exhaled a heavy sigh as he locked his fingers on hers.

"Yeah Sara chan! Kick that teme's ass!" She heard a loud boisterous voice cheer from the stands. She bit her lip to stop herself from laughing. She didn't want to make Sasuke sulkier.

As she walked back, she saw Naruto give her the thumbs up. She could feel Sasuke's gaze pinned on her back. His fangirls were glaring daggers on her.

 _Time to escape._

She caught Hinata's eye, and the latter quickly nodded, stepping back from the crowds and disappearing.

Sara subtly slithered to the shadows too.

Iruka bristled and gave Naruto a disapproving look. "Okay Naruto, maybe it's your turn to fight. Sara chan can you still-" Iruka looked at the place where he saw Sara last. She wasn't there. Iruka blinked and looked around. The other students blinked up curiously at him. Iruka sighed. Sara always vanished after her fights. Iruka let her be since she always performed spectacularly. She would come back when it's time for another activity anyway.

So Iruka turned to Sasuke instead. "Sasuke, can you still fight Naruto?"

Sasuke just raised his brows and turned his glare on Naruto. Naruto scowled at him. "Bring it on! You will lose!"

Their other classmates started cheering for Sasuke and shouting demeaning words to Naruto.

Iruka sighed. This will be a long match.

Meanwhile, Sara and Hinata were sitting on the roof of the academy, hiding behind one of the pillars, watching the fight.

"Naruto's going to lose." Sara casually commented, eyeing the match.

Hinata shook her head, her eyes glued to Naruto. "You don't know that….?"

Sara clicked her tongue. "His attacks are too straightforward. He's like a bull. Sasuke will just play around him."

Hinata sighed. "But that doesn't mean that he's not strong."

"Of course not." Sara agreed. "He just needs to fight smarter. Naruto is really one of the strongest one here you know. He'll find his way to be."

Hinata smiled and nodded. "He will."

Sara chuckled. "You and your crush."

Hinata's face snapped towards her with wide eyes, face turning red. "No, I don't! I don't have a crush! Who has a crush? What does crush mean? Does crush exist?"

Sara laughed now, poking Hinata's rosy face. "Calm down. Noone's up here."

Sara looked down again and watched as Sasuke definitely kicked Naruto down. They just clutched each other's shirts in the end, not even bothering to do the seal of reconciliation. Iruka looked exasperated beside them as he tried to break up the fight.

"Man, the two of them would have a pretty intense rivalry, don't you think?" Sara said, looking amused and shaking her head fondly.

Hinata turned towards her. "But technically, you should be Sasuke's rival, right?"

Sara sniffed. "Naw. I don't want to waste my energy on rivals."

"But Sakura and Ino are rivals." Hinata said, gesturing at the two friends who now sat far away from each other.

"And now look at them. They broke up their friendship over _Sasuke._ Their rivalry is actually a little unhealthy. I think Ino just pushes herself so much on Sasuke to piss Sakura off." Sara pointed out.

"You don't think Ino really likes Sasuke?" Hinata said incredulously.

Sara laughed. "Oh she likes Sasuke. But she's just super aggressive about it for Sakura. I don't know, I think it's a weird rivalry. I like Naruto's and Sasuke's more."

Hinata shrugged. "Well, Sasuke only ever takes his fights seriously with you. And with Naruto too though, surprisingly."

"Yeah. He could beat Naruto easily." Sara agreed. "But he takes his fights with Naruto really seriously. You'd think that Sasuke would flat out reject the concept of his rivalry with Naruto. But he bites it anyway."

Hinata shook her head. "I still think that you should be Sasuke's other rival. He must be pretty frustrated for failing to defeat you each time."

Sara gestured around. "And that's why we're hiding." Sara paused. "You're right though. I mean, not about the rivalry. But Sasuke must be frustrated."

She wondered again if Sasuke hated her. Maybe he didn't care that much. But he was torturing himself now to improve. Maybe he only hated losing to her because she was goal-less.

"Maybe I should make up a personal goal so he would feel like his defeats are not so meaningless." Sara ventured.

Hinata tilted her head. "Don't you have a goal Sara?"

Sara perked up. "Of course I do." She opened her arms and gestured to the blue sky. "To live, in this gifted body, in this wonderful world!" She looked down on Sasuke who was looking thoroughly pissed at Naruto. "But I don't think he understands that. Maybe I should put out a particular goal."

Hinata only smiled at her. "You shouldn't make up a fake goal for him. That's an insult to his dedication."

Sara sighed. "I know. So I'm thinking of actually having a specific goal. What's the harm, right?" The harm could be plot changing. She needed to be careful. But she would think about it.

Sasuke's goal was to kill. Maybe she could have a completely opposite goal. To save.

 _Itachi._

Okay, that would be totally disastrous. When she thought about saving someone from this world, all she could think about was Itachi. Itachi had been her absolutely favorite character in Naruto. He was selfless and he was purely dedicated to protecting the village. His death was very painful, on the hands of his beloved brother who hated him his whole life. Even on his death, he tried to save Sasuke, gifting him with the Amaterasu in case Tobi came to get him. And when he was resurrected with the Edo Tensei, he still saved everyone and no one knew. He watched his broken brother and told him that he would love him no matter what.

Sara remembered crying and crying on those episodes.

But it was a catatonic idea to make a goal _COMPLETELY_ opposite from Sasuke's, when she originally wanted to make a goal for Sasuke's benefit.

Then again, Sasuke would want Itachi alive in the end anyway.

It was too complicated.

"Okay, where have you gone to?" Hinata broke into her thoughts, nudging her with a curious expression.

"Oh, just here and there." She answered with a smile.

She'll think about it.

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"Sara, do you have a crush on anyone?" Ino asked her, twisting around on her chair to face her.

Today, Sara and Hinata were seated just behind Ino, Shikamaru and Chouji. In front of them, Sasuke, Sakura and Naruto were seated.

"We're having a class work Ino." Sara answered noncommittally.

Ino raised an eyebrow. "I'm done with it. And so are you, I know you're just making notes on another book again."

Sara grinned sheepishly. "Okay okay, you got me." She raised her hands and turned her attention to Ino.

Ino rolled her eyes. "So come on Sara, tell me, who have you got a crush on?"

"I thought you declared that every girl in this class has a crush on Sasuke?" Sara countered, fiddling with her pencil. Sasuke tilted his head a little in their direction.

Ino huffed. "Well I know you don't. Otherwise you wouldn't be kicking his ass around."

Sasuke threw a glare at Ino. Ino gasped and immediately clung to his neck. "Sorry sorry. I don't mean it! You're still the greatest and the most awesome!"

Sakura jumped on her feet and started yelling at Ino and trying to pry her hands away from Sasuke.

Sara sighed and went back to her notes.

After a while, the yelling had stopped and Ino propped her arms on Sara's desk.

"Anyway." She continued, as if a commotion didn't just occur. "I know you don't like Sasuke that way." Then she lowered her voice and glanced at Hinata. "So don't you." Then she twisted around to face the desk at the front row, then called out loudly. "Right, Naruto?"

Naruto immediately perked up and looked at them. "What was that? What was that?"

Ino rolled her eyes. "Nothing. Go away."

Naruto pouted but went back to his seat. Hinata fainted beside them.

Sara giggled. "Don't do that Ino. Okay, so I don't like Sasuke. So what?"

Ino tilted her head. "So who do you like then?"

Sara's brows furrowed. "Noone. I'm not thinking about those kinds of things yet."

Ino huffed. "Come on, there must be someone you really like!"

Sara just shook her head with a smile. Hinata woke up beside her and buried her head on Sara's shoulder. Sara patted her head.

"Okay then, if you will like someone, who would it be?" Ino pressed on, leaning closer to them.

 _Itachi baby._

She shook the thought away with a laugh. "What's the difference?"

Ino sniffed. "Well this time we're talking about the one who would have the most chance once you finally consider dating."

 _Itachi baaaaabyyyyyy._

Sara adored Itachi's character. And she loved reading romance stories on Itachi in fanfictions. But she was sure that Sasuke would murder her then and there if she declared right now that she had a crush on Itachi.

So she thought about it. She was in her favorite anime and if she could actually date someone….

She glanced out of the window, thinking. That's when Team Gai walked by.

"Oh! I got it." She announced. Ino straightened her back and looked at her excitedly. Sara chuckled at her enthusiasm. She really didn't understand why Ino wanted to know about this in the first place.

She pointed out the window. "Hyuga Neji."

Hinata gasped beside her. _Ooops._ She forgot that Neji was Hinata's cousin.

"Y-You h-have a crush on N-Neji niisan?" Hinata said, looking gobsmacked. Sara couldn't help but laugh at her expression.

"I said if I will have a crush on anyone, it will be Neji. But as I'm not thinking about it right now, I don't."

Hinata shook her head. "But still! So if you will have a crush, it's Neji niisan!"

Ino looked out the window and considered Neji, nodding. "Okay, he is an eye candy so I can see why physically. But Sasuke's also gorgeous but you don't like him. So why Hyuga Neji?" She asked Sara curiously.

Sara shrugged. "He's a year older than us, so it's more exciting. He's a prodigy and a genius. He's a Branch member of the Hyuga but he's extremely talented. Isn't he, Hinata?"

Hinata blinked fast, nodding slowly. "Well….yeah. He is really strong."

Sara twirled her hair and stared at Neji out the window. "He's dedicated and passionate too. Plus he's really beautiful. If I will have a crush, I'd like him."

She turned to Hinata and wrapped her arms around the girl. "But don't worry Hina-chan. I still love you the most. If he bullies you, I will kick his ass."

Hinata hiccuped. Sara pinched her cheeks. _Adorable._

Iruka came back to the classroom and collected their work. After he did, the bell rung, signaling the lunch break.

All the girls, except for Ino and Sakura, suddenly jumped up and rushed out of the room.

They headed straight towards Team Gai.

"Uhhh…what are they doing?" Sara asked, surprised, watching the girls crowd around Neji and gushing on him. Neji looked murderous.

Ino grinned at her. "They were probably listening in on our conversation earlier."

Sara blinked. "So?"

Neji started fighting off the girls. Lee was loudly cheering on the side. Tenten looked amused. Gai was yelling about the fires of youth.

Ino stood up and flipped her hair. She walked out with her head held high and marched towards the girls. She pounced in too, and she was harder to push away so Neji started even blocking her tenketsu, screaming that it was self-defense.

Sakura was fidgeting in her seat. But she jumped up and mumbled an excuse about the restroom and ran out. After a beat, a flash of pink joined the crowd.

"Okay, I'm really confused. Why did they all attack Neji?" Sara asked, curious about the odd behavior.

Hinata giggled. "They weren't attacking him. They're probably fangirling him to death though. You're a trend setter. Didn't you know?"

Sara blinked owlishly at her. "What?"

Hinata inclined her head. "Come on Sara. You can't honestly say that you didn't notice when girls started wearing their hair up in a long braid after you did? You did it, everyone followed."

"Eh?! But why would they do that?" Sara asked incredulously.

Surprisingly, it was Shikamaru who answered her. He had one eye open as he slept on his desk, gazing down at her. "Because you're not as invisible as you think."

Sara shook her head. "What does that mean?!" She demanded.

Shikamaru sat up and rested his chin on his hands. "You're talented, friendly, smart and powerful. You're badass. They would have been jealous, but you don't come out and bask in your own glory. You hide away. So they ended up idolizing you."

"Even Ino?!"

Shikamaru shrugged. "Nah Ino's just humoring them. And Sakura just followed because Ino went. But they both like you as well."

Sara gaped at the girls mauling Neji. Neji, though, was impressively knocking them out cleanly. The girls squealed.

Sara winced. "Uh oh. I hope he never finds out that I was the one who set those girls on him."

Hinata laughed. "He'll probably find out. You better hide."

Sara groaned. "Aw this is so troublesome! Anyway, you're welcome then Sasuke." She called out. Sasuke turned his head to her, frowning.

"Well, I got those girls to get off you and set them on someone else. You should have a peaceful lunch today."

Maybe it was her imagination, but she saw Sasuke smirk before he turned away.

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Today were the team assignments.

The Finals was so easy that she practically just breezed through it. Hinata said it was okay, but Sara knew that her sweet friend was probably just being modest. Like in the canon, Naruto couldn't conjure a clone at the last test. So he failed. Hinata was all crestfallen about it. Sara was so tempted to tell her the spoiler.

They received their headbands yesterday. Like Hinata, she put the headband around her neck. Matchy matchy. She and Hinata giggled over it when they tried it on in Hinata's room last night. She was invited again for a celebration dinner at the Hyuga household. It was strange but she felt like Hiashi welcomed her presence around Hinata.

It must be because Hinata looked a lot happier with Sara. Her positive influence began to push Hinata towards being more confident. Her stutter had virtually vanished when Sara was with her. Sara knew that a little more push from Naruto would make Hinata really bloom.

They sat at the back again, looking around at the excited students.

Hinata had a bitter sweet smile on her face though.

Sara sighed. "Naruto will be here."

Hinata squeaked. "I wasn't thinking about that. Who's thinking about that? Who's thinking about anything? Nobody thinks about anything."

Sara laughed. Hinata pouted at her, her face reddening again.

Shikamaru glanced back at them. "But Naruto didn't pass. Why would he be here?"

Sara grinned knowingly. "Because he's the number one surprising ninja. Why wouldn't he be here?"

And with timing that only existed in this world, Naruto suddenly barged in, proudly adjusting his forehead protector.

Shikamaru threw him an incredulous look, then back to Sara. Sara winked at him.

Hinata looked ecstatic beside her. "H-H-H-H-H-He p-p-p-p-p-passed-"

Sara rubbed her hand on Hinata's back soothingly. "Breath, princess."

Hinata turned to look at her with a glowing smile. _Awww._ "I told you everything would be alright. See?" Sara whispered.

Hinata happily squealed and wrapped her arms around Sara.

"Well you two certainly look happy." Ino said, just arriving and sitting in front of them. The other girls were already fighting over the seat next to Sasuke at the front row. It looked like Ino abandoned the battle. Sakura was still fighting at the center though.

 _Ooooohhh I know what's gonna happen next!_ Sara jumped up at her feet and stood on the chair to get a better view. Ino and Hinata looked at her curiously.

There! Naruto crouched on Sasuke's desk, looking at him straight in the eye. It was an intense stare down. But a boy infront of them accidentally bumped on Naruto's downside, shoving him forward into Sasuke.

The screams of agony from the girls in class were bloodcurdling.

Poor Naruto, running for his life around the classroom. Sakura and Ino were at the front of the chase, screaming murder at the boy who stole Sasuke's first kiss. Naruto was also violated and he had a disgusted expression, but he had to keep running from the crazed girls.

Sasuke was adamantly wiping his lips and wincing minutely.

Over the chaos, Sara laughed her heart out. Sasuke heard her and threw her a deadly glare. Sara merely smiled sweetly at him and winked.

Hinata looked like he was torn between laughing because of our hyper classmates or crying because his crush lost his first kiss. Sara nudged Hinata, and Hinata settled on a weak smile.

"Our classmates are so energized this morning, aren't they?" Sara told Hinata, watching the ongoing chase, screams, and crying.

Hinata only shook her head in amusement. "Well it is the team assignments. I wish I'll be teamed up with you." Hinata looked nervous. She and Sara had been sticking with each other for some time now. Being around a different group was certainly terrifying.

Sara poked her cheeks. "Relax, we'll still visit each other. Besides, your awesomeness will make your new team adore you, just like I do."

Sara looked forward and clapped her hands together. "Personally, I want a civilian team!"

"You definitely won't get a civilian team, Sara." Ino said, sitting back down in front of them.

Sara blinked at her. "Oh! Is the chase over?"

Ino grinned wickedly and gestured towards the beaten-up Naruto at the corner. Hinata fidgeted.

"You should go to him." Sara said, bobbing her head towards Naruto's direction. Hinata squeaked, looking terrified.

Ino rolled her eyes. Sara gave Ino a look, making Ino turn away, pouting. Hinata took a deep breath and stood up shakily. But just as she started to walk towards Naruto, Kiba came in the classroom and called out Naruto. In a flash, Naruto was on his feet again and showed Kiba his shiny forehead protector and grandiosely talked about how he got it.

Hinata sat back down, dispirited. Sara rubbed her back comfortingly. "Not yet time, my friend." Hinata sighed.

"So anyway." Sara called back to Ino. "What do you mean I won't get a civilian team?"

Ino turned around and raised a brow. "Well there's nothing wrong with a civilian team of course. But as the top Kunoichi, I'm sure you'll be paired up with at least one of us."

Sara blinked. "I'm not the Top kunoichi." _Didn't I already throw off my game to get off the rank?_

Shikamaru got up from his slouch. "You're not just the top Kunoichi, you're ranked 1st."

"But…But I already lost that rank didn't I?" She demanded, chills running down her spine.

Ino flipped her hair and gazed at Sara questioningly. "Oh you mean last semester? Yeah you slipped a little, got behind Sasuke and Sakura. But you got it back this finals. Don't you look at the ranking board?"

Sara turned white as sheet, thinking about what could happen if she really was at the top. She already consciously performed less last semester. Maybe she subconsciously performed good again this finals. Whatever the case was, she must not be at the top.

Hinata touched her arm, looking close at her. "Sara, what's wrong? You're pale."

Ino tilted her head. "Why are you so afraid to be on top? Don't you like it? You'll be in a good team."

Sakura bristled at the front. "Yeah. You'd be distributed to a good team because of it. You're really well off." Sakura casted her an envious look, morphing into worry when she saw Sara's expression.

"I-I….I-I-I…mmmmm…" Sara stammered, panic building up in her. Hinata quickly grabbed her shoulders.

"Okay, listen to me. Breath Sara. Breath. Breath in, Breath out." Sara listened to Hinata's voice. "Come on, breath with me. Breath in, Breath out."

Hinata's voice was a breakthrough to her trance. She breathed with her help, her fingers still shaking, but her mind definitely clearer.

"Okay, now. Tell me, what happened? What's wrong?" Hinata's voice was soft, but even.

"I…..I-I-I-"

"Okay, wrong question." Hinata cut her off, her eyes full of worry now but determined. "How about we start with team ups? Who do you think will be in my team?"

Easy question. One she had an answer to. Sara took a quick breath. "You will be with Kiba Inuzuka and Aburame Shino."

Both Kiba and Shino looked towards them at the sound of their names.

"Hey hey! You think the three of us will be teamed up together?" Kiba asked her loudly, his mouth forming an O.

Shino just gazed at them, interested in their conversation.

Hinata's eyes widened in surprise. "Oh. Why do you think so?"

Sara blinked. "Tracker team. Byakugan. Nose sense. Bugs."

Hinata thoughtfully nodded. "That….actually makes sense."

Kiba grinned and gave a thumbs up to Hinata and Shino. Shino nodded in agreement.

Ino tapped Sara's desk. "How about me? Do I get to be teamed up with Sasuke kun?"

Sara shook her head. "You will be with Nara Shikamaru and Akimichi Chouji."

Ino grimaced. "Ewww. I don't want to be with them! Why them?"

"The Ino-Shika-Chou is tradition. You'd make the perfect capture and assault team." Sara nonchalantly said.

"But Shikamaru is a lazy ass!" Ino groaned, stomping her feet. "And Chouji does nothing but eat!"

Sara raised her brows at Ino. "Shikamaru is a genius."

Ino gaped at her. "He sleeps in class all the time."

"And he still passed everything. Imagine what would have happened if he focused." Sara countered.

Ino opened her mouth to retaliate. But quickly closed it again, considering it. "What about Chouji then?"

Sara shrugged. "He needs to keep eating to keep his monstrous strength."

Ino threw Chouji an assessing look. Chouji smiled awkwardly at her, still eating his chips. Ino sighed and nodded in acceptance. "Eh. Whatever. It shouldn't be so bad."

"Wow, we're excited to have you in the team too, Ino." Shikamaru mumbled, his eyes only half open this time.

Ino rolled her eyes. "Whatever Shikamaru. You should be happy you have a beautiful girl on your team."

Shikamaru snorted.

Hinata turned back to Sara. "Okay, now how about you? Who do you think you'll be teamed up with?"

 _The Top shinobi. The Top Kunoichi. And the Deadlast._

Sara blinked fast, expelling the thought from her head. Maybe she's wrong. After all, that team up pattern was just a cover for the real reason why Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto were paired up together. The true reason was Sasuke's sharingan should be able to help with the Kyubi incase Naruto ever lost control. Sakura was there because she could help encourage Naruto by not paying him attention. She would also continue giving a touch of connection to Sasuke by poring over him.

But it wouldn't work in her case since Naruto didn't like her, and she didn't like Sasuke.

Maybe she just overreacted.

Sara chuckled weakly. "No, no. I'm fine. I'm going to have that civilian team!"

Shikamaru eyed her. "That what you think?"

Sara nodded firmly. "Yes. I just got it wrong. I'll definitely be in one."

Ino pouted at her. "Why do you even want to be in a civilian team? I'm not degrading them or anything but wouldn't it be more helpful if you have someone from a clan in your team?"

"Because Sara likes being invisible." Shikamaru answered for her, but his tone implied that he clearly thought she shouldn't be.

Ino clicked her tongue. "Oh honey, you're not invisible."

Hinata rubbed her shoulders soothingly. "It'll be fine, Sara. Whatever happens, I'll be here for you."

Sara smiled weakly at Hinata.

The door opened and Iruka finally walked in with the list of teams.

Sara closed her eyes and prayed that she was right.


	5. Chapter 5 - Exposed

Chapter 5 – Exposed

Summary: She was just a sickly girl back home, living her short life to its fullest. She was supposed to die, but she woke up in an entirely new world as a completely different person in a baby's body

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"Sara...!" Someone was calling her name. She couldn't fathom whose voice it was. But she could hear it, like a whisper in her ear.

"Sara, stop that. You're scaring me!" It sounded vaguely like Hinata.

"SARA." The voice was getting louder. She could feel her world shaking. No, someone was shaking her.

"SARA!"

Sara gasped, blinking hard. She looked around her in confusion. She was back in the classroom, and some of her classmates were looking at her with various emotions ranging from curiosity to worry.

Beside her, Hinata was teary eyed. She was clutching Sara's shoulder and she was gasping.

Sara took Hinata's hand from her shoulder, squeezing it gently. "Were you...screaming?" Sara asked in surprise.

Hinata sniffed, nodding slowly. "It's because...you just froze. And you weren't blinking. You weren't talking. I thought..."

That must be why their classmates were all looking. Hinata was screaming, must have been a sight to see. Sara tilted her head, putting a finger on her temple and pressing it. She felt fine though.

"What happened?" She asked, quickly sensing and assessing herself with her chakra.

Hinata swallowed, eyeing her warily. "Iruka sensei...announced the teams."

Sara froze. _Ahh. Fuck. Yeah, that's what happened._ Her memories flooded back to her. Iruka was simply going through the names of each team. When she heard her name, and she heard which team she was in, she just blanked out.

Hinata carefully poked her cheeks. "You're not going to go into shock again, are you?"

Sara shook her head, closing her eyes and massaging her forehead. "Nah. I'm over it. I just need to think now." _Damn it._

"So..." Hinata slowly started. "You were right about the team ups. I'm in Team 8 with Shino and Kiba. Then Ino, Shikamaru, and Chouji are team 10. And...ummm...team 7..."

Sara sighed heavily. "Sasuke, Naruto, and me. Right?"

Hinata nodded, keeping an eye on her expression. "You knew you'd be in that team?"

Sara shut her eyes tightly. "Yeah."

At the front, Naruto stood up and pointed rudely at Sasuke. "Iruka sensei!" He shouted at the top of his voice. "Why is a top student like me in a group with this guy?"

Iruka sighed. "Sasuke graduated with the second highest scores. And you Naruto, had the worst scores. This happens because we want to evenly divide the abilities in the group. You are also with the ranked 1 student, Sara. This should even things up."

The whole class erupted into laughter.

Sasuke threw a glare at Naruto and started insulting him. Sara groaned in frustration.

Hinata's mouth formed an O. "Ahh that's why. Top Kunoichi. Top Shinobi. And the last in class." She said in realization. "This is why you freaked out when you heard that you were the top Kunoichi?"

Ino turned to look at her. "But Sara, don't you want to be in that team? I understand that the idiot Naruto is there but..."

Sara quickly shook her head. "Oh I want Naruto in my team. In fact, I think Naruto is the one I would like to have the most." But she winked at Hinata and tackled her. "Except for you princess. I would always love you the most."

Hinata just giggled and shook her head.

Ino's face morphed into surprise. "Naruto? You want that knuckle head in your team?"

Sara raised her brows high up. "Naruto is potentially the strongest person in this room." She noticed that several of their classmates had their heads leaned in towards them. Sara turned to look, and they all quickly shuffled back in place. Were they listening in?

Sara cleared her throat. "Anyway, have you ever noticed that the civilian kids all stay away from Naruto?"

Ino shrugged. "Well because he's annoying."

Sara shook her head. "Well Kiba's annoying but nobody calls him demon."

Kiba perked up at that. "Hey!"

"So you are all listening in!" Sara snapped at their direction, eyes narrowed. Kiba chuckled weakly and pretended to look away. Their other classmates also pretended to chatter about. But Sara knew they were listening. _Why?_

Ino looked deep in thought at what she said. "Okay, fine. So Naruto is seriously badly misjudged. So?"

She knew that it was only the civilian parents who badmouthed Naruto. The shinobi families knew who Naruto really was and who his parents were. The kids from shinobi families probably just went along with bullying him because everyone else was already doing it.

"So." Sara continued, voice rising. "Naruto has a secret. A powerful secret that makes people afraid of him. So afraid that they call a 12-year old boy a demon. If you really focus on sensing his chakra, you'll know that his reserves are 10 times more than the rest of us combined."

Ino's eyes widened. "Really?" She cast a disbelieving look on Naruto. "We're talking about this Naruto, right?"

Sara nodded eagerly. "I heard that he was allowed to graduate because he created a thousand shadow clones to save Iruka sensei last night."

Shikamaru, Chouji, and even Sasuke tilted their heads a little on their direction now. So why was Sara telling Ino all of these? She was sick of Naruto being treated like some kind of loser. And now that she's officially his teammate anyway, maybe she could boost him up a little.

"That's insane! But Naruto sucks a lot in combat and studies." Ino questioned, rubbing her chin.

Sara made a show of looking at Naruto with sadness. "That's because he has noone to teach him properly. He has huge amounts of chakra that he couldn't control. People laugh when he tries the target practices. Discouragement and isolation. He's bound to not perform well."

Ino shuddered, imagining a strong Naruto. "Doesn't that make him scary though? If he's that powerful, and others call him demon..."

Sara rolled her eyes. "Look at him Ino! He wants to be Hokage. Do you really feel like he could be dangerous? To us? Do you really think he can hurt us?"

Ino blinked, assessing Naruto again. Naruto probably already felt her stare because he turned around and stared back. "What? What is it? What?" He said, pouncing on her desk and looking up at her curiously.

Ino sighed and pushed his face away. "Nothing. Go back to your desk. Don't hurt yourself."

Sara stopped herself from grinning. See? All Naruto needed was a badass image.

Ino turned back to her. "Okay fiiiiine. I see what you mean."

Chouji tilted his head. "But Sara, that makes your team completely awesome then. You got badass Naruto, _and_ Sasuke."

Shikamaru nodded lazily. "Yeah. Why did you go into shock if your team sounds competent anyway?"

Sara sighed. "Because! It's an insane team! Sasuke, for example, has his own goals. I'm pretty sure those goals would take priority over anything else!"

Sasuke glanced at her. But he quickly looked away when she caught him looking. _Seriously? He's listening in too? Why is everyone gossiping on me?_

"And as awesome as Naruto will be, he's a definite magnet for trouble." She continued her rant. "And as his teammate..."

"You have to take the trouble with him." Hinata finished the thought, concern glinting in her eyes. But if Sara looked harder, she would see a tint of amusement too.

"And above all, they hate each other." Sara sighed. "So that means..."

"Ahhh you'll have to play mediator." Shikamaru answered, nodding in understanding. "Troublesome."

Ino smirked at her. "Well, so much for being invisible now."

Sara ran her hand through her hair in exasperation. "Yeah. Change of plans then." Sara leaned into Hinata and lowered her voice to a whisper.

"Is it me or is everyone listening to our conversation?"

Hinata smiled. "Yeah. I think they were impressed that you guessed all our teams so they're just gossiping on you now."

Sara clicked her tongue. "Well at least I advertised badass Naruto to everyone then."

Hinata sat up straight and looked at her with glowing eyes. "Do you mean all that?"

Sara chuckled. "Of course I do. You know it, Naruto's awesome."

Hinata squealed in a small voice, wiggling happily. _Adorable._

Iruka cleared his throat to get everyone's attention. "I'm going to introduce the jounin teachers this afternoon. Meeting adjourned until then!"

Naruto jumped on his feet. "Yatta! Lunch time!" He happily skipped towards the doors, bumping into a few people on the way.

"Oh, ooops. Sorry! Sorry!"

The classmate he bumped into nodded. "it's okay, Naruto. Be careful next time."

Naruto paused in surprise. "Mm. Okay. Thank you?"

Another classmate bumped into him. "Oh hi Naruto! Where are you going to eat lunch?"

Naruto blinked at her. "Er...Ichiraku?"

The classmate nodded approvingly. "Ahh good place! Enjoy your lunch! Don't be late later!"

Naruto's face scrunched in confusion. But his stomach grumbled loudly, so he shrugged, raised his arms and walked out eagerly.

Hinata and Sara shared a knowing look. So everyone really was gossiping on her earlier. Their change of attitude towards Naruto was funny. But at least it worked. Now, Naruto's the mysterious badass.

"Our classmates are weird." Sara commented off handedly.

Hinata shook her head. "I told you, you're a trendsetter. If you say so, then it must be true."

Sara threw Hinata a disbelieving look. "They can't really idolize me that hard."

Hinata shrugged and winked at her. "You're awesome. Just accept it now. You're stuck in your catatonic team anyway."

Sara groaned, her hands covering her face. "Speaking of, I need to prepare _now._ Laters Hinata! _"_

With that, she jumped on her feet and raced out of the room.

Hinata raised her arm in surprise. "Mmm...later." She said softly to the open door that Sara rushed out of.

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When Sara got back in the classroom, all the teams were already seated together.

She marched towards her team at the front row. Naruto and Sasuke were seated away from each other at the ends of the seat. Sara sighed and dropped about 25 books in the middle of their table.

Ino gaped at her from her seat behind them. "Ohhhhhkay. Girl, that's preparation overkill."

Sara shrugged. "Eh. These are just basics. Besides, they're just books."

"You sneaked some of them out again, didn't you?" Hinata piped up, shaking her head at Sara.

Sara grinned mischievously. "You know it. I'll take them back anyway after I'm done. Give me at least a week to finish these."

Ino wrinkled her nose. "What are those anyway?"

Shikamaru leaned over and caught the title of the book on top. "Ahh Medical books. You're trying to become a medic?"

Sara pressed her lips together before responding. "No. I just think that medic skills would come in handy in this team." _A lot of medic skills. Expertise even. Damn it. Sakura should be in this team._

Naruto raised himself higher on the chair to look at the books she brought. "Ne ne Sara chan! Why do we need medic skills in our team?" He asked curiously, eyes widening at the difficult titles of her books.

Sara scooted herself through them to get to her seat. "You and Sasuke are offensive fighters, close to midrange. This team would most likely be front line fighters. In that case, we'd be the team with the most potential injuries. It's better to have someone who could heal them or make them less painful, if nothing else."

Naruto's eyes were bulging at her sheer number of books. "Can you really finish all of those in a week?"

Sara shrugged. It wasn't a big deal. "I have a photographic memory. I can handle it. I'll need to read more of this anyway."

Naruto gaped at her. "You'll read even more of those?"

"Yeah. These are just basics. I'm hoping to read something more complex."

Naruto beamed at her and gave her the thumbs up. "You're really smart! You're amazing Sara chan! We'll be a bomb ass team."

"With you in it? You'll bomb this team." Sasuke grunted from his corner, not even looking their way.

Naruto's head snapped towards him. "What did you say you Teme?!"

Sasuke glared at him now. "Nothing you can understand, Dobe!"

Sara straightened in between them and pushed their shoulders away from each other. "Okay. No. Fight later when I'm _not in between you."_ She hissed at them.

"Hn." Sasuke turned away uncaringly. Naruto pouted and threw one last dark look at Sasuke.

Ino chuckled behind her. "Mediator. I see what you mean."

Sara sighed, pulling out some books. But before she forgot, she turned towards where Sakura was sitting.

"Oh, hey Sakura!"

Sakura blinked up at her. "Sara chan, what is it?"

Sara took one book from her pile and passed it on to her. "You should try reading these kinds of books."

Sakura brows furrowed, eyeing the book she had been given curiously. "Mmmmm medical books?"

Sara nodded. "Yeah. I think you'll be good for it. You're also very smart after all. You'll get it fast."

Sakura blushed under her praise. She smiled and rubbed her hands together. "Okay, thank you Sara." Sakura immediately opened her book and absorbed herself in it. Sara nodded to herself, she knew Sakura would come a long way in this field. She was fated for this anyway. She felt so guilty taking away the future that was supposed to be hers. But there was nothing she could do about it now.

Hinata leaned towards her from the back. "You think Sakura's supposed to be in Team 7, don't you?"

Sara bit her lip. "I think she'd do a fantastic role here."

"Why, don't you think you won't?" Sara faced Sasuke in surprise, who was eyeing her impassively.

Sara helplessly shrugged, gesturing at her books.

Sasuke inclined his head. "You're the number 1 student in the academy even though you are a civilian and an orphan. You are brilliant and you work hard." Sara was about to hoot in surprise ( _THE Sasuke Uchiha deemed her worthy)_ but almost immediately, he was suddenly sneering at her. "I never even won against you. Never. So you better do a good job in this team or there will be consequences."

Naruto immediately jumped to her defense. "Hey don't be a jerk to Sara chan! She was just nervous!"

Sara placed a hand on Naruto's shoulder soothingly. "It's okay Naruto. Sasuke just wants us to be a good team."

Naruto sniffed. "Well he doesn't have to be so mean about it. And of course we'll work hard and be the best! Right? Right?"

Sara smiled at the little sunshine. "Yeah yeah."

After everyone settled down, she finally opened the first three of her books. She laid them down in front of her. She could feel Sasuke watching her curiously. She ignored him and proceeded reading her books.

Not even a minute into it, Naruto nudged her. "Ne ne, Sara chan, can you read all those three books at once?"

Sara smiled at Naruto and nodded. "Photographic memory." She tapped on her head. Naruto was looking at her in amazement. _Aww he's such a sweet cutie patootie. Hinata's a lucky girl. Well, Naruto's a lucky boy too anyway._

Sara flipped the page of one book and glanced at it for 3 seconds. Then she handed it to Naruto.

Naruto curiously peered at the page.

Sara clicked her tongue and started reciting the page. "The anatomical position is the frame of reference for many other terms relating to anatomy, anatomical structures and anatomical directions. The anatomical position consists of a standing upright person facing forward with the person's arms on their sides next to the body and the feet together. What makes the anatomical position different from a normal standing position is the fact that the palms of the hands are unnaturally facing forward rather than naturally facing the leg..."

Naruto gawked at her as she continued reciting the rest of the page, word per word, exactly and perfectly.

When she finished, Naruto's eyes were wide as saucers, his mouth hanging open. On her other side, Sasuke was facing away from them but the corner of his mouth was lifted.

Sara mockingly flipped her hair and took the book back from Naruto.

Naruto clapped his hands, bouncing on his seat. "That was awesome!"

She winked at him before going back to reading her books.

Over the next minutes, the teachers for the teams came one by one to take their respective assigned students. When Hinata and the rest of team 8 were called by Kurenai, Hinata passed by her table and gave her a quick squeeze before waving goodbye.

Sara felt her eyes burn, watching Hinata walk away. She will miss hanging out with the sweet princess everyday. Who would have known, at the beginning, she was very reluctant to make friends with Hinata. Now, she wished they just ended up on the same team. Well, it wasn't like she couldn't still bug Hinata every other day if Sara wanted to.

When the other last team was called out, the three of them were stuck in an uncomfortable silence that hovered over the suddenly gloomy and empty room. Maybe they weren't close enough yet to really be used with each other's presence.

Sara could feel Sasuke's annoyance on one side, and Naruto's fidgeting and restlessness on the other.

Sara sighed. She actually took those books from the library today because she knew Kakashi would be late. She already accounted for his lateness, getting useful learning materials to get herself occupied while they waited for their eternally late sensei. Good thing that she also considered her teammates while she was getting the books in the library.

"Hey, Naruto." Naruto paused from tapping his foot impatiently. He gazed curiously at her.

"What is it Sara chan?" He loomed over her desk with his wide blue eyes. How noone noticed his mild resemblance to the fourth Hokage was beyond her. Sara pulled out another book from her pile and handed it over to him.

"Here, I got you a book too in the library. Maybe you can read it while we wait."

Naruto peered over the book in wonder. "The Tale of a Gutsy Ninja." Naruto read the title out loud. "But, but. reading is not really my thing, Sara chan." Naruto sheepishly told her as he awkwardly flipped the pages.

Sara smiled at him. "Don't worry, I got you the cartooned edition. This book has a lot of pictures along the story. Besides," She tapped the backside of the book. "The main character's name is Naruto. I think you'll like it."

Naruto straightened up in surprise. "Wow really?! My name is destined for greatness!" Sasuke snorted. But Naruto was too eager to notice. He flipped to the first page and started reading, swaying slightly on his seat. Of course, even if he's reading, Naruto just had to keep moving.

Sara picked up another book from her pile and handed it over to Sasuke. Sasuke raised a brow at her. She lifted her shoulders and gestured to the book she was handing him. With a sigh, Sasuke took the book and peered over it.

"The different applications of chakra to fire and its properties." Sasuke's eyes widened in interest as he flipped to the back of the book and read its summary.

Sara beamed at him. "I thought it would interest you. I heard you can do a big fireball jutsu. Maybe you can experiment on its variants and expel the fire in different heat levels."

Sasuke nodded in agreement, eyeing the book and pursing his lips in approval. He quickly opened the book and started reading.

And that was how the three of them spent the next hours.

Naruto was fascinatedly poring over his adventure book, minutely chuckling to himself or gasping at a scenario in the story. Sasuke's eyes were glued to his informative book, occasionally nodding at something or raising his brows when he read something interesting. Sara was meticulously reading her 3 books. She had a small notebook out so she could take notes on really important subjects.

This was the setting that Kakashi arrived to.

Kakashi wasn't sure what to expect from his students but it certainly wasn't this. The Hokage had toured him around the homes of the three and gave him a brief explanation of their personal traits.

The last Uchiha in the village was on this team. As Kakashi and the Hokage followed him around the village, he could see just how brooding and isolated Sasuke was. He stayed away from people and walked without seeing anyone else on the road. The Hokage warned him of Sasuke's probable goal of gaining revenge on his brother. This worried Kakashi. His apartment was virtually minimalist. He didn't have much personal effects. Just a lot of ninja equipment and essentials. This showed that Sasuke had nothing else on his mind but progress towards his goal. That was really worrying.

His sensei's son was also on this team as well. Naruto on the other hand was loud and boisterous. He ignored people's terrified and angry gazes and went about his day energetically. The Hokage mentioned that this used to upset the child. But finding Iruka in his life greatly comforted him and gave him a more positive outlook. Of course Naruto still wanted recognition so his ultimate goal was still to become Hokage. His apartment was extremely messy. The whole apartment itself was ran down, and it was almost empty. Other residents moved out because he lived there, so that left the other shady residents. Kakashi felt a pang of pity for the boy. But being the Jinchuriki of the Kyubi had its price. Kakashi knew that a lot of trouble will follow them around because of Naruto.

The last student on the team came off as mysterious for Kakashi. The Hokage just shrugged it off, saying that she was just a normal, hardworking student. She went by the name of Sara. Just Sara. She didn't have parents too ( _Great, they were a team of orphans, including him._ Kakashi thought with a bitter laugh), and she lived in a small orphanage at the edge of the poorer civilian section. She looked normal, simple, and chill. She didn't stand out in school, and kept to herself. But she had also befriended the heiress of the Hyuga clan. He heard that Hiashi himself even invited her to their celebratory dinner. She was also ranked 1 at the Academy. He scanned her file and found that she didn't just excel in tests, she also dominated in combat. He spotted her very early in the morning, running laps around Konoha. To Kakashi, it seemed like there was more to Sara, perhaps great potential. But as it was, it would be troublesome to draw them out.

The Hokage informed him that Sasuke and Naruto had an ongoing rivalry. The balance of the team would push the two boys to working hard to overcome the other. The girl in the middle would see to it that the balance remained. Kakashi's nose wrinkled at that. He couldn't see _Sara_ willingly balancing the boys out. Sara was unrelated to the boys. As far as he investigated, she was one of the only girls in the academy who didn't fangirl over Sasuke. She also didn't have many interactions with Naruto. Sara was a stranger to the two. He didn't see how she could act mediator. It seemed like Iruka had recommended Sara as a comforting presence to anyone who came to her. She was introverted, but caring.

Finally, Sasuke was also a failsafe strategy to controlling Naruto with his Sharingan should Naruto lose control of the Kyubi. Kakashi knew that this was the real reason why they were in the team together.

So as Kakashi went to the academy to fetch his team, he imagined chaos. Sasuke and Naruto shouldn't have been able to stand each other, staying in the same room with no objective for so long. Sara would be minding her own business elsewhere, or maybe her kindness would take over and she would try to get through to the boys unsuccessfully. Naruto would be pissed off for being made to wait so he was more likely to plot a prank against him (Kakashi heard that Naruto was often called the Prank King.)

But as he opened the door of the classroom, expecting something to burst out or any screams of anger towards him, he only found three meek students sitting casually next to each other and reading books. They looked up as he entered the door, blinking slowly at him.

"Hi! Are you our sensei?" Naruto spoke up, jumping excitedly from his seat. He looked at Kakashi up and down, frowning deeply. He tapped his chin as he assessed the teacher. Finally, he sighed loudly and pointed at Kakashi. "You look lame."

Sasuke slapped a hand to his forehead, shaking his head. "Dobe." He muttered under his breath.

Sara only giggled at her teammate's antics. "Hello sensei." She greeted politely, her eyes twinkling with mirth.

 _Ah, there it is._ Kakashi thought in relief. Finding three apparently studious pupils definitely surprised him. This banter now was more of what he expected. Nobody mentioned his lateness though. They must be pretty absorbed with their books to not notice the time anymore.

Kakashi smiled at them. "Let me see what I think of you 3..." He paused dramatically. "I hate you all."

Naruto gasped and scowled at him. Sasuke's brows furrowed at his declaration. Sara looked like she was trying not to laugh.

 _What a weird bunch._ Kakashi thought in defeat. He half hoped they wouldn't pass the test so he wouldn't have to handle these little menaces.

He turned his back to them. "Meet me at the rooftop." And he promptly shunshin-ed away.


	6. Chapter 6 – Introducing Me

Chapter 6 – Introducing Me

Summary: She was just a sickly girl back home, living her short life to its fullest. She was supposed to die, but she woke up in an entirely new world as a completely different person in a baby's bod

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Sara walked up the stairs at a more leisurely pace. Naruto was practically brimming with excitement so he skipped up the stairs with a big smile. Sara just giggled at him. Naruto was really one hyperactive little boy with the greatest heart and dream. She wasn't Sakura but Naruto was warm and kind to her all the same. Sara admitted to feeling a little giddy, knowing that she will get to work alongside the hero of the world.

Sasuke walked at a faster pace ahead of her, frowning at the ball of energy in front of him. This hostility between the two would cause serious headaches for Sara. She would very much like to just ignore them, but it wouldn't do to work within a broken team.

Sara stared at her teammates, exhaling a heavy sigh. _This is it then. I'm really in this team._ Sara honestly had no idea how to go about this. It was one thing to already get involved with the Rookie 9 by being in the same class. But it was a whole other thing to be shoved in the heart of the crisis, in team 7 of all teams.

Sara wasn't sure what she was supposed to do in Sakura's role. Would she need to encourage Naruto to become better? Would she need to fawn over Sasuke so he would know that people care about him and that he would always have a home to go back to? Would she need to be on the sides to cheer for the two of them?

Sara got those medical books because that was the only role she was sure of that she needed to fulfill. The overtaking of the original Sannin was done by team 7. She knew she needed to do her part especially when the timeline of the Shippuden came. Expertise in the medical field was the aspect of Sakura that greatly benefitted the team in the future. She knew she needed to become that too to survive and assist in the coming events.

Even though medic practice really bored her. She struggled to not be sleepy while reading her books earlier. She wasn't undermining the skill of it. It was still very difficult, but it all came down to chakra control. It was a precise study.

Her seal making always required a certain level of creativity and cunning to achieve the effect she wanted. That excited her and thrilled her, no matter how many sleepless nights she had just to solve a specific mystery.

But medic art was more direct. She did agree that it would be useful in the long run so she swallowed her distaste and pushed herself to keep reading those books. Her respect for the Sakura character of Naruto who became a great medic nin considerably heightened.

Sakura accomplished a lot of great things medically. But anything mental and behavioral that Sakura affected was something that Sara cannot ascertain.

Now that she was in the heart of what mattered, she was deliberating exactly what she needed to do. The original plan was to take a step back and let things happen. But if she was here and she stuck to that plan, then it meant letting deaths happen under her watch. She just wasn't sure she could stomach it, to battle her guilt by chanting 'It was supposed to happen.'

Sara sighed again, closing her eyes and shaking her head at the magnanimous things that would follow.

Sasuke glanced at her, brows furrowing. But before she could look back, Sasuke already looked away.

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At the rooftop, Kakashi leaned against the railing of the terrace, gesturing to the floor in front of him for them to sit on.

Sara stared at her new sensei. It was _THE_ Kakashi, with all his glorious cool and angst, in the flesh. Sara had to bite the inside of her cheeks to stop herself from squealing. He looked a little goofy now, but she suspected that he was portraying himself like that on purpose. He normally looked suspicious because of the mask covering ¾ of his face. But moreover, he was slouched on the railing, looking like he'd rather be anywhere but talking to three kids.

Whatever image he wanted to disillusion them with, Sara remembered his gorgeous face with his beauty mark. She remembered the great man becoming the 6th Hokage. She remembered his strength and precision when he fought. She remembered his genius, kindness and fairness.

So she looked up at the silly looking man and gave him her brightest smile. Kakashi caught that and merely eye smiled at his enthusiastic students.

 _Well, aren't they a happy bunch._ He thought to himself, watching two of his students eagerly wait for him to start. Sasuke was throwing glances at his teammates, then at him, which was honestly more mobile than Kakashi expected him to be. He had expected Sasuke to just fold his arms in front of him and ignore everyone.

Kakashi cleared his throat. "Let's see, why don't you introduce yourselves?"

A pause. Naruto jerked up, his bottom wiggling in his seat. "Eh eh what do you want us to say?

Kakashi crossed his arms. "What you like, hate, dreams and hobbies." He lifted his hands in a shrug. "Something like that."

Naruto scratched his head, grimacing. Then he pointed cheerily at Kakashi. "Hey, hey. Why don't you introduce yourself first, sensei?"

Kakashi pointed at himself lazily. "Me? I'm Hatake Kakashi. I have no intention of telling you my likes and dislikes. As for my dream..." He paused. Then he looked up in thought. "I have a few hobbies."

Naruto gaped at him, looking incredulous.

Sara folded her legs and rested her chin on her knees, beaming at her teacher. "Hello Kakashi sensei. Nice to meet you."

Sasuke frowned at her. Sara shrugged at him.

Kakashi chucked. He gestured towards them. "Now, it's your turn." He crossed his arms and nodded at Naruto.

Naruto grinned and straightened up. "I'm Uzumaki Naruto." He said, fiddling with his forehead protector. "I like cup ramen. But I like the ramen at Ichiraku that Iruka-sensei bought for me even more. I hate the 3 minutes that I have to wait after I put the hot water. My hobby is to eat and compare cup ramens." Then he raised clenched fists in determination. "And my dream is to become greater than the Hokages. I'm going to make all the villagers recognize my existence!"

Sara's eyes twinkled at Naruto's familiar intro. With the way he was going, she almost assumed he would say his dream was to be a ramen cook.

Kakashi's eyes widened , then returned to looking bored. _I see. He grew up in an interesting way._

Kakashi's eyes moved to Sara. "Okay, next."

Sara shrunk in her seat, looking upwards in thought. _How will I go about this? "_ Uhmm...my name is Sara. Just Sara." She started twiddling the ends of her hair on her fingers. "I like a lot of good things." She liked a great lot of things, she wasn't sure which to mention at the moment. "I don't like bad things." _Okay, I'm starting to sound lame._ She clicked her tongue, her nose wrinkling. "You'll just have to spend time with me to know about them." She decided, not really knowing how to compartmentalize her interests.

Then she sighed. "My goal is to save someone." There, it was final. She was officially making it her goal. She thought hard about it, and she decided that she would never be able to live with herself if she let it happen. She was in this schmuck team now anyway, she had access, if limited.

It was crazy how her number one goal was to save Itachi of all people. She never even got to know him in her life here. But she was a dedicated fangirl. And he wasn't just a character here now anyway; he lived, loved and breathed. While he went about saving everyone without credit, who would save him?

She decided that she was going to save him, and probably some others she could get her hands on. She'd have to be sneaky about it though. The bloody timeline had to be protected. If she was going to start saving people, she needed to find a way so that the timeline would still remain undisturbed. But she had time to plot. She prayed that she would be capable enough not to muck things up.

"Save who?" Sasuke's voice broke through her thoughts, surprising her. Kakashi raised his brows at Sasuke's sudden inquiry. But Sasuke's steely eyes watched her, obviously demanding for an answer.

Sara blinked slowly. "Someone precious to...people." Sara looked away from his piercing gaze. _Why is he so curious? "_ He's surrounded by bad people. I need to be strong enough to go through them. Then I need to be strong enough to resist him when I find him." That was as much as she could say without giving away too much. She initially played with the idea of announcing a goal so Sasuke wouldn't be so frustrated because he lost to her every time. She wanted Sasuke to feel that she was also working hard towards a goal, so she needed to be stronger.

Sasuke probably hated losing to someone who yearned for nothing. But now that her goal was real, she would really work hard to achieve it. She had a feeling that being in team 7 would require that kind of determination anyway. She needed to be fixated in something, to move towards something, to keep surviving in her destructive team.

She toyed with the idea of actually announcing that her goal was to save Itachi. She could picture Sasuke jumping on her and throwing her off the roof.

Sasuke looked like he wanted to ask more, but Sara pursed her lips and turned away from him. Sasuke frowned at that.

Kakashi alternated his gaze between the two. His eyes landed on the lone kunoichi of his team. _Well well. I would have thought that girls her age would be more interested in their love lives. She's serious, if nothing else. She still hadn't said much about herself though. What is she playing at?_

Kakashi jerked his head towards Sasuke. "Last guy!"

Sasuke turned his glare to Kakashi. His eyes weren't really looking at his teacher though. It was like he was seeing something that wasn't there. "My name is Uchiha Sasuke. There are many things that I hate and there aren't a lot of things that I like."

Kakashi inwardly shook his head. _So in this team, only Naruto really introduced himself properly. Sara was all "I like good things and I don't like bad things." Now Sasuke says he has many things he hate and less things he likes._

Sasuke's mood darkened. "Also, I have an ambition that I have no intention to leave as just a dream. The revival of my clan, and to kill...a certain man."

Naruto shivered. _I hope he's not referring to me._

Kakashi looked grim. _Just as I thought._

But Sara smiled enthusiastically at Sasuke. "Let's all work hard for our goals then, ne? Naruto will become Hokage. I will save a hero. And you will kill an evil man."

 _Although only one of us will succeed, Sasuke._ Sara thought, inwardly shuddering.

Naruto beamed at her with shining eyes. It must be because she sounded certain when she declared that Naruto will become Hokage. Sara winked at him.

Then she turned to Sasuke with innocent eyes. "So, who did you want to kill, Sasuke?" _He asked me who I wanted to save. So yes, I would dare to ask him._

Sasuke threw her a cold look. Sara wasn't fazed though. She tilted her head, waiting for his response.

Kakashi sighed. He cleared his throat, about to say something, when Sasuke actually responded.

"My brother."

Naruto looked confounded, gawking at Sasuke. Kakashi's eyes widened, not expecting Sasuke to really indulge the question.

Sara just looked at him though, her lips slightly parted in wonder. She didn't really expect him to answer too. But she was glad that he told her all the same. So she nodded at him and smiled. Sasuke rolled his eyes and looked away.

"Alright." Kakashi called out. "You three have unique..." He eyed Sasuke and Sara. "...and mysterious personalities! I like that. We're going to begin a mission starting tomorrow."

Naruto raised his hand in a salute "What kind of mission is that, sir?"

"First we're going to do something that we four can do." Kakashi informed them with a nod.

"What what what, what is it?" Naruto was bouncing on his seat.

Kakashi shrugged. "Survival training." He paused, looking at them seriously. "This is no ordinary training."

Naruto raised his hand, waving it. "Then then, what kind of training is it?"

Kakashi lowered his head, then he started chuckling darkly. Sara put her knuckles against her lips so he wouldn't see her smile. _So overdramatic._ Sara thought in amusement.

She cleared her throat. "S-So what's so funny s-sensei?" She was still trying not to laugh.

Kakashi waved his hand. "Well, if I say this, I'm sure you three are going to be surprised."

Naruto straightened, looking at him questioningly. "Huh?"

Kakashi splayed a hand on his face and eyed each of them with menace. "Out of the 27 graduates, only 9 are going to become genins. The other 18 will be sent back to the academy. In other words, this training is going to be a very hard test with a dropout rate of 66%."

Naruto's face morphed into shock. Sasuke narrowed his eyes. Sara just looked at Kakashi, looking suspiciously bored.

Kakashi's eye twitched at that. But he raised his voice with mock laughter. "See? You three are surprised."

"No way!" Naruto growled, aggravated. "I went through so much trouble...Then what was the final exam for?"

Kakashi gave a dismissive wave of his hand. "That? It just picks out those who are qualified to be Genin."

Naruto started shaking. _I'm not going to get dropped by a thing like this. I have to make him recognize my abilities, for real._ He thought, fuming.

Sasuke clenched his fists.

Sara put a comforting hand on Naruto's shoulder. "Why are you worrying Naruto, don't you believe that you will pass?"

Naruto jerked, shaking his head quickly. "Ofcourse I know I will pass! It's just that...the final exams..." He lowered his head, looking disgruntled.

"Eh, but you know. I think sensei is right to have a survival test." She said nonchalantly.

Naruto blinked up at her, surprised. "But...but Sara chan-!"

"Think about it." Sara cut him off. "To be honest, I think a lot of our classmates aren't really ready yet to be a ninja. We could die out there. The final exam was more paper tests and scenario reaction tests. The last test was to produce a clone. None of it simulates combat." She shrugged. "I think this survival test will showcase the accumulation of what we have learned." _Which is to realize that we won't always be strong enough, so we need to work with our teammates. "_ Besides, this is just confirmation anyway. As long as we're really qualified to be genin, then passing shouldn't be a problem."

Sasuke raised his brows. "And if we fail?"

"Then we're not ready yet." Sara said without missing a beat. "I'd rather accept that I'm not ready yet, than push myself out there anyway, knowing I'm not, and get killed. We're just 12. There shouldn't be a rush. We get strong when we get strong."

Naruto pouted at her, but it looked like Naruto accepted that explanation with a sigh. He scratched his head, defeated.

Sasuke's mouth set in a grim line. But he also nodded, and moved to stand up.

Kakashi's single eye widened. _That's a very mature take. And her teammates listened to her. I guess she would be a good balance after all._

Kakashi turned his back to them and waved his arm in farewell. "Now then, meeting over."

He paused then looked back. "Oh yeah, don't eat breakfast. You're going to throw up if you do."

With that, he vanished into a swirl of leaves.

Sara immediately turned to Naruto. "So so, Naruto. Since we're teammates now, do you want to eat dinner together? My treat."

She knew Naruto wouldn't ask. She wasn't Sakura after all. But she wanted to connect with Naruto anyway. He was the freaking hero of the whole series. She might as well be close to him now that she was stuck on his team.

Naruto considerably brightened, giving her a lopsided grin. "Yatta! Yes yes! You're super nice Sara chan! Thank you!"

Sara smiled at him. She slowly turned to her other teammate. She expected him to turn her down, but it was polite to ask him.

"How about you Sasuke? Do you want to come with us?"

Sasuke had his back turned on them, but he paused, gracing her with an impassive look.

Naruto scowled at Sasuke's direction. "Eh?! Why are we bringing that teme Sara chan?!"

Sasuke glowered at Naruto, his teeth gritting. "I'll go on your stupid dinner."

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Of course, they ended up in Ichiraku Ramen because Naruto really really insisted. Sasuke argued on another place, but Sara piped up that Ichiraku Ramen was within her budget. So Sasuke came along with a defeated sigh, and a dirty look at Naruto.

Naruto enthusiastically recommended different bowls of ramen to them. Sara amusedly entertained the idea of Naruto being a professional ramen cook in the future instead. She had no doubt that she would definitely excel at it. It would probably be frightening if their future hero didn't develop the desire to become Hokage, and succumbed to the lure of his beloved ramen instead.

Naruto chattered as they ate their dinner, talking about his day and the things he did the last week. He was eager to tell his stories because he could see that Sara was really listening to him. She nodded, reacted and asked him questions. He grinned wide at her, glad that he was making a new friend...and not just any friend. _Sara._ Sara had never been aware of her popularity. But that was what made her so special. People had always watched her create her seals quietly, and read many advanced books. Then kick everyone's ass in the field...even _Sasuke's._ But she was very nice when spoken to, and never hesitated to help when asked.

There was just something about watching her answer automatically when drilled with high level questions as if they were nothing, her hands moving flawlessly across the board when answering equations, or moving lazily to avoid hits during combat, then striking precisely to incapacitate them so suddenly that no one saw it coming. Then when you approach her, she would grace you with the biggest smile.

Sara wasn't as obviously pretty as Sakura, or as charming as Ino. But she had her own shine, even as she huddled in a corner with Hinata, minding her own business. Shikamaru mentioned the other day how Sara wanted to be invisible. But even Naruto could see that she wasn't. Not at all. People always looked at her. Even _Sasuke_ did. But he was always really sneaky about it. That jerk thought no one could see him staring.

And Naruto was happy that even if he was...him, it didn't seem like it mattered to her.

So he happily told her his stories.

Sara eventually turned towards his other teammate, who was eating quietly, shooting annoyed looks at Naruto.

"What do you usually do in your spare time?" She asked hesitantly. She only wanted to include him in the conversation. She really didn't expect him to come along. So she had no idea how to make him feel like a part of their 'team dinner'. Leaving him alone didn't seem very nice.

Sasuke cocked his head, his face blank. "What do you do in yours?" He threw back.

Sara tucked a lock of hair behind her ear, absently considering the question. "Train. Read."

Sasuke nodded, looking back at his food. "Train. Read." Sara wasn't sure if he just repeated what he said in thought, or he also answered her question.

But before she could ask him, Naruto nudged him. "You're always reading, Sara chan. I mean, you even have a book on your lap right now!"

Sara chuckled as she glanced at the open book on her lap under the counter. "Yeah. It's a really interesting book though, can't put it down."

Naruto shook his head with a laugh. "Can you even read while chatting and eating?"

Sara smirked.

And the rest of the dinner was spent with Naruto testing Sara again, making her chant the pages of the book word per word, Sasuke rolling his eyes beside them, but his eyes also widening when Sara really did chant the book.

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	7. Chapter 7 - Help and ask for help

Chapter 7 – Help and ask for help

Summary: She was just a sickly girl back home, living her short life to its fullest. She was supposed to die, but she woke up in an entirely new world as a completely different person in a baby's body

 **A/N: I will be re-watching the episodes for the next chapters so I might take some time. Not too long though, as evidently, I'm kind of in a hype. Thank you so much for everyone who likes it! Please leave some reviews and give me some criticisms! I also need some ideas on how to proceed so feel free to give some suggestions.**

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Sara was already up and about at 3 am.

Kakashi informed them to meet at the training grounds at 5. She thought of sleeping in and waking up at a later time instead because she knew that he would actually come really late. But Sasuke and Naruto would probably show up on time, the cute little minions they were.

So she decided not to leave her teammates in a terrible fate, and joined them in this ungodly hour. Although she actually had a worse fate because she needed to get up 2 hours before their meeting to finish her morning training routine.

After a quick bath and packing of breakfast, she dropped off her bag at the training grounds, did some warm ups and stretches, adjusted her weights to be heavier, then started jogging around Konoha.

She ran past her obstacle course (placed around Konoha in random secluded part of the woods) and did her katas, kicks and punches, focusing first on the still figures on the way, then on the moving figures triggered by her traps, all while continuing to rush forward.

She pushed through the stony path of the forest and hanged to tree branches, swinging herself across branch by branch. After doing that for a kilometer, she came across a clearing and leapt high, pulling out her wooden kunai and throwing it at her targets scattered around. Some targets were even behind a few trees and boulders, so she needed to throw perfect rotating curves.

There were many more obstacles she had to encounter before she successfully circled the whole of Konoha. But after she finished the complete circle, she only had 5 minutes to breath before she had to do it again. Everyday, she circled Konoha 10 times.

Her daily routine went like this. As an orphan, she didn't have a clan to provide her with private training grounds, so she used the surroundings of Konoha instead. It was very difficult because Konoha was insanely large, and circling it already took a lot of energy. Circling it with an obstacle course was extremely draining. Doing it 10 times was torture. Doing it 10 times with weights was downright deadly. Hinata could only finish 5, and she always cheated. She would skip some obstacles and use an alternate route across.

After many years of keeping at it, Sara could say that the pain of doing it never really lessened. Her body just grew to endure the pain more and more as time passed by. But it was worth it for her. In her previous life, she had always been small, soft, and pale. Now, she had hard muscles and no flabs. Her skin was lightly tanned from always being under the sun. She liked her lean figure and healthy body.

After her 10th circle, she finally finished and performed her cool down. She drank 5 bottles of water, and poured the 6th one over herself, cooling her skin with the fresh water. Only then did she walk back towards the training ground in a relaxed pace. She arrived at exactly 5 am.

She nodded to herself, grinning at the accomplishment. It was bad enough that she had to wake up extra early, but she also needed to circle the village 10 times before 5 am so she wouldn't be late. And she was successful in doing that too.

So while Naruto still had sleep in his eyes as he reached out sleepily and said his hello, and Sasuke was decidedly cool and calm, looking less angry than usual (he must be more peaceful in the morning), Sara could only wave a single hand then flop down on the ground with her arms and legs splayed out like a starfish.

Naruto gasped, his eyes snapping fully open. "Sara chan! What's wrong?"

Sara raised a finger, keeping her eyes closed. "Give me a moment. Let me breath for 5 minutes."

Naruto immediately crouched beside her, mouth shut but his eyes obviously worried. Sasuke stood over her head, arms crossed.

Sara sighed. "Why are you guys crowding me? Go away!" She put an arm over her eyes.

"Dobe will just keep walking around restlessly if you won't tell him what's wrong with you." Sasuke chided, his forehead creased.

Naruto scowled at Sasuke. Sara almost thought she heard Naruto mumble …."using me as an excuse..." But her ears were pounding so she wasn't very sure.

"Sara chan," Naruto slowly said. "You're drenched and sweaty. And you look beat up. Did someone fight you? Tell me and I'll beat him up for you!"

Sara weakly chuckled. "That bad? I set my weights heavier today." She blew air from her cheeks. "It's just my training regime. Don't worry about it. I'll be fine in a few. I'm circulating my chakra as we speak."

Sasuke's eyes widened a little. He twitched, but he crossed his arms and pursed his lips.

Sara rolled her eyes. "If you want, you guys can come join me tomorrow morning. I'll show you what I do."

Naruto brightened. "Really?! You really will? It's not a secret from us? You'll share it?"

"Why do you think it's a secret?" Sara asked, inclining her head at Naruto.

Naruto looked sheepish, rubbing the back of his neck. "Well...you're always really strong you know. So...I thought you'd want to keep your training a secret."

Sara blinked. "I'm not super strong-"

Naruto snorted, playfully shoving her shoulders. "We know you are! Even when you fight us, you're holding back but you still win!"

Sara gaped at him. "How did you even know that I'm holding back?"

She wondered if Naruto was really perceptive after all. Then again, the original Naruto canon was pretty perceptive on small stuff, but he was dense on others. Maybe this was just one of the things he correctly picked up, because he was right.

But Naruto just grinned at her. "Iruka sensei mentions it. He said he couldn't grade you much higher because you weren't giving it your all. But he said you could get really higher grades if you wanted to."

"You gossip about me?!" Sara gasped, picturing Naruto and Iruka talking about their class in Ichiraku.

Naruto shook his head. "No way! Iruka sensei wouldn't talk about that. I just hear him grumble it when he watches you fight."

Sara sighed, slowly sitting up and massaging her neck. "Well, I just train a lot, that's all. So, you'll join me tomorrow morning?"

Naruto gave a thumbs up. "You got it! But...you don't really train so early...right?"

"No." Sara giggled. "It's just because our stupid sensei set such an early time for us." She turned to Sasuke and smiled politely.

"How about you? Will you join us tomorrow morning?"

Sasuke fixed his eyes on her, as if deliberating something. But he nodded.

Sara knew he was the one who really wanted to train with her. He was probably curious what she did since she always beat him. It was fine with her if they tag along, she didn't mind who joined her anyway. She knew that Naruto and Sasuke would get infinitely stronger on their own. But if they wanted to train with her, then why not?

"Oh by the way." She said, pulling bento boxes from her bag. "Do you guys want breakfast?"

Naruto immediately started shaking his head. "But but, Sara chan, sensei said we shouldn't eat or we will throw up!"

Sara laughed. "That depends on what we eat. Our future missions will always be strenuous. You can't honestly say that you will never eat before missions."

She tilted her head, raising a finger. "The key is to consume easily digested carbohydrates, so you don't feel sluggish. We should eat healthy carbohydrates such as whole-grain cereals with low-fat or skim milk, whole-wheat toast, of course without the fatty cream cheese, low-fat or fat-free yogurt, whole-grain pasta, brown rice, fruits and vegetables." She said matter-of-factly.

She opened her bento boxes. "I just have a few simple carbs so we have at least some energy. This shouldn't make us throw up."

Naruto's mouth went "O" as he accepted his bento. "Well...I guess."

Sasuke accepted his without a word, accepting her explanation.

Naruto hesitantly chewed on his, then his eyes brightened. "Damn, this is really good Sara chan! Did you make this?"

Sara smirked. "Nope. Hinata did. I visited her last night after our dinner. You can thank her later if you see her."

"Sure will!" Naruto said, grinning from ear to ear as he dug in his food happily.

Sara decided to stay near Hinata when Naruto comes later on so she could catch her friend after she faints.

After they ate, Sara stood up and did some stretches. She faced Naruto. "Hey Naruto, let's spar."

Naruto's eyes went round. "Me? You want to spar with me?" Sasuke stiffened beside them.

"Yeah. My objective is to cut you. You can attack and defend however you want though." She told him, pulling out a kunai.

Naruto jumped back, gawking. "Eh?! Why is your goal to cut me?!"

Sara smirked at him. "Relax. I just want to practice on my medical jutsu after. You'll let me try to heal you right? I'll teach you something cool later."

Naruto gasped in excitement. "Really?! Of course I'll help you Sara chan!"

Sasuke frowned at her. "Didn't you just start reading medical books yesterday?"

"I already got a good grasp on my chakra control." It was actually pretty easy for her. "It's just a matter of converting it into healing chakra. I don't have a perfect grasp on it yet. That's why I'm asking Naruto to spar with me. He...heals fast. In case I make a mistake, he'll just recover quickly."

Naruto visibly tensed. But he still smiled weakly at them. "...that's true. I...heal fast."

Sasuke's eyes narrowed as he trained his eyes on Naruto. Naruto bared his teeth at him.

Sara sighed knowing that they were about to go into a shouting match again. So instead, she crouched into her fighting pose. "Naruto, you ready?"

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" _Wise men say_

 _Only fools rush in._

 _But I can't help_

 _Falling in love with you."_

Sara sang in a whisper as she focused her glowing green hands on Naruto's cuts. Naruto was wincing slightly, but otherwise, he swayed his head to her song. Sasuke was leaning against a tree but he was watching her heal Naruto with interest.

Sara wasn't singing just for the heck of it. One night definitely wasn't enough to start converting her chakra into a repair and heal function. She needed to sing to manipulate both the chakra she was using, and Naruto's system to program itself into healing.

When Hinata offhandedly suggested the use of her voice in combat, she started experimenting and toying with the potential of it. She had no idea how to use it so it took her about a year or two to really figure it out. Mostly, she ended up singing and jamming because she just liked singing. But she saw the various possibilities of manipulating sound and soundwaves when she studied about it.

Normally, it could be done by manipulating Yin/Yang and Wind chakra-nature together to create a release allowing one to manipulate sound and soundwaves to their whim. But she was shocked to realize that she was able to release chakra through singing. She always knew that her singing was somewhat impactful, even in her old life. She always assumed that it was because she always sang from the heart. But she never thought that the impact of her singing here might be more than her emotional attachment to the song, but a real intrusion of the senses and manipulation of sound.

Hinata was right. Her song was welcoming to the senses because it's an amazing melody so it was usually accepted so openly by the receivers. Unlike other sound techniques, which usually intrude violently on the senses (making the receiver's head ache and bleed out their ears), her voice was a lullaby, lulling the senses into submission.

She planned on using this as her main artillery when she executed some of her plans to sneakily save lives. It was unexpected, and it was hers. She knew it was another gift from her past life, just like her somehow gifted brain.

This super powered world never failed to amaze her. Somehow, this world always made everything so grandiose. It was just singing to her, but the ninja world made it into a whole new weapon.

But regardless, she only really figured this out during their graduating year so she hadn't developed it yet. For now, she could make a person's system believe an illusion when she sang, kind of like a minor genjutsu. She deduced last night that it could be helpful while she was healing, like a placebo effect. She would make the person's body believe that it was being healed. And somehow, the person's system would work to fix itself. Mind over matter worked more effectively here in the ninja world.

Her hand kept flickering from green to blue, so she knew that she wasn't healing Naruto completely. So she sang to urge his body to do its job. And because it was Naruto with his super healing, his chakra circled around with her melody and healed his cuts cleanly.

Sara sighed in relief, sweat starting to bead on her forehead.

Naruto whistled. "Wow, you really did it Sara chan! The cuts are completely gone! No scar too!"

Sara shook her head. "Nah, that was half you. And I'm really not being modest about it." It was true anyway, she was just able to trick his chakra into doing the job faster. She vowed to study medical jutsu harder.

Sasuke stared at Naruto's vanished cuts and nodded his approval.

Sara rolled her eyes. "I'm serious you guys! I need to practice more."

"Of course you do." Sasuke agreed, looking at Sara with raised brows. "You only had one night of this. It was impressive enough that you pulled it off anyway, even if it was still weak."

Her lips twitched, glancing at Sasuke. "It might be more helpful for me if you let me heal you instead. Naruto has boosts you see." Naruto flinched at that, but she ignored it, hoping Naruto will realize that it didn't matter to her. "So if you would be so kind." She held out her hand to Sasuke.

She was only half joking of course. Sasuke wouldn't compromise himself like that. Not for someone else. But Sasuke stared long and hard at Naruto, who shrunk and looked away, before he looked back at Sara and nodded firmly.

Sara gasped as Sasuke knelt down next to her and cleanly cut his own palm. He held it out to her impassively.

"Mmmmm..." Hesitantly, she carefully held his hand and concentrated her chakra on her hand, focusing so she could convert it into healing. As she placed her glowing hand on Sasuke, he winced, but then he visibly forced himself to endure it.

Sara bit her lip. If it hurt, then she still didn't successfully convert her chakra. The conversion should also change the chakra's destructive force into a soothing one, making healing a generally painless process. She just hadn't mastered it yet, no matter her control. So she opened her mouth and started singing again.

" _Like a river flows_

 _Surely to the sea..."_

Sasuke looked at her curiously as she sang. But she focused on manipulating his chakra. It took longer because it didn't have regenerative qualities like Naruto's. But she also laid it thicker by attempting to lull his senses into numbness, so he wouldn't feel pain anymore. She could see Sasuke relax after she did. Eventually, his system cooperated enough with her to really heal the cut.

After the cut finally vanished, she let out a huge breath she didn't know she was holding, and swiped at her sweaty forehead.

"Well. That took a lot out of me. It wouldn't be helpful unless I improve that."

Sasuke merely nodded. "No, it wouldn't." But he was looking at his completely healed palm with interest.

Sara blew from her cheeks, and put out a sealing paper. She carefully drew a chakra storage seal and attached it to her arm, the paper vanishing after she did. The healing really did take a lot out of her and she needed to circulate more chakra for the day. The seals she attached to her body always camouflaged with her skin after she attached it. It was a quality she added so she didn't look stupid with papers covering her body.

Sasuke eyed the vanished seal before speaking to her. "You said you would teach Naruto something...cool?"

 _Ahhh so this is the price of allowing me to try and heal him._ Sara thought, amused.

"Something useful." Sara answered with a nod. "I'll show it to you too if you come with us tomorrow...if we pass."

Sasuke didn't answer. He turned away and went back to the tree he was leaning on earlier.

Shrugging, Sara pulled out some of her medical texts and pored over them again.

Only a few minutes had passed when Kakashi finally arrived.

 _Have we been waiting that long already?_ Sara thought in surprise. She didn't know that they already spent a long time sparring and healing. Kakashi was obviously late. The sun was already high up. But they didn't even notice it.

"Hi fellows. Good morning." Kakashi greeted cheerily.

"Sensei, good morning." Sara answered pleasantly, standing on her feet and beaming at her sensei.

Kakashi paused, eyeing the three of them. _Well, the three of them look awake._ Kakashi assessed, wondering why no one even complained on his lateness again. His students must be more patient than he thought.

With a sigh, he sluggishly walked to a tree stump and placed a timer on top of it. He made a show of setting it.

"Alarm set at 12 PM" He announced. Then he produced 2 bells from his pocket. Sara's eyes twinkled as she gazed at it. It was the famous bell test! Of course she knew that already, but it was still giddying to see in person. She bought 2 bells on a cosplay event before on her past life. Yep, she was a total fangirl.

Kakashi shook the bells, making tinkling sounds. Sara shivered with excitement.

"Today's topic is to get one of these bells from me." Kakashi made it tinkle again, probably taunting them. "Whoever can't will have no lunch."

Naruto gaped at him. Kakashi snickered at his expression. "I'm going to tie you there and eat lunch in front of you."

The three of them exchanged looks. Sara saw relief in the boys' eyes, probably grateful of their breakfast earlier as their sadistic sensei added this twist to their test.

Sara dutifully raised her hand. "There are only 2 bells sensei." She pointed out.

Kakashi eye smiled. "Since there's only 2, at least one will have to be tied to the log. That person will fail since he failed to complete the mission. The person will go back to the academy. It might be just one, or all three. You can use your shuriken. You won't be able to get this unless you have the will to kill me."

"Eh eh?! But that's too dangerous!" Naruto shouted, pointing at Kakashi.

Kakashi turned to him. "In society, those who don't have many abilities tend to complain more. Just ignore the guy with the lowest score. We're going to start after I say Ready start."

Naruto's face morphed into anger. But before he could pounce on Kakashi, Sara piped up. "Or he could just be more considerate because he wanted to have a good measure of what he needed to do."

Naruto paused, blinking at Sara. But a determined look flashed on his face. "Y-Yeah! That's right! That's what I was thinking!" He declared, crossing his arms.

Sasuke scoffed. "Sure. Of course that's what you're thinking, Dobe." His sarcasm was thick.

Naruto scowled at him. "You just wish you thought of it first, Teme."

"You didn't even think of it. Sara did."

Sara put a hand on Naruto and Sasuke's shoulder, pushing them away from each other. "Sensei, didn't you say we were starting?"

Kakashi's eyes gleamed. Sara knew that he thought for sure they would fail because of their awful team cohesion. She sighed, knowing that he might be right.

"We're going to start. Ready, start."

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Sara kept herself casually hidden on a tree branch. She could hide more effectively, but it really wasn't the point of the test so she didn't bother. She was practiced at stealing books from the library after all. She knew how to confuse her chakra with a few seals and redirect where it's located. But as it was, she sat calmly above, pretending to hide.

She watched the confrontation between Kakashi and Naruto. Naruto really was headstrong, he just bulldozed Kakashi, truly believing that he could kick the Jounin's ass. She giggled after Kakashi threw Naruto into the river with the thousand years of pain. Naruto's plan after was pretty brilliant, ambushing Kakashi with his clones from the river and holding Kakashi down from behind. She didn't think he actually looked stupid even after Kakashi replaced himself with a log. It was still a pretty active plan after all. But seeing his clones fight one another was still a sight to see.

Soon, Naruto triggered the trap after he tried to pick up what he assumed to be a fallen bell. He hung upside down with a rope tied on his ankle. Sasuke made his move, throwing several shuriken on Kakashi. But Kakashi only replaced himself with the logs. Thinking that he gave away his position, Sasuke turned tail and ran to hide again.

Sara, on the other hand, dropped down and walked towards Naruto.

"Hi, Naruto." She greeted, walking towards him with a smile.

Naruto looked at her upside down, grinning despite his position. _Adorable baby Naruto._ Sara thought, smiling wider.

"Hiya Sara chan!"

"Want a hand?"

Naruto paused, but he nodded as his arms helplessly flailed above him. Sara chuckled, jumping up and cleanly cutting the rope that held his ankle.

"Thanks Sara chan! You're awesome!"

Sara shrugged. She tilted her head. "So, want to tag team into getting the bells?"

Naruto blinked up at her, but he only smiled and shook his head. "I'll be fine Sara chan! I can totally take a bell myself!"

 _He thought I don't think that he's capable enough to get one himself._ Sara frowned. "Maybe we can get Sasuke into cornering-"

"That teme can go back to the academy for all I care." Naruto cut her off, a stubborn scowl on his face. "Don't worry about me Sara chan! I'll get one bell, then you can get the other."

With that, he waved one arm and hurriedly sped off, trying to sense Kakashi.

Sara sighed. She could try harder to convince him. But he had to want it himself. She wondered why he was adamant on getting a bell independently. She was sure that if she was Sakura, Naruto would have teamed up with her. Maybe having this "idol" label on her made him feel like proving himself. Sara clicked her tongue, annoyed at the said label. She wanted to be invisible, not a hailed queen of their class. On the brighter side, Sasuke seemed morbidly curious of her. It made it easier to cajole him into hanging out with her and Naruto.

She leaned against a tree as she sensed Kakashi approaching her.

"Sara." He said behind her. Sara threw him a glance and smiled. "Hello, sensei."

Kakashi blinked at her. _She's not even surprised. She must be chakra sensitive. It's a little advanced but that's a good thing._

Kakashi opened his arms. "Are you going to try now?"

Naruto already had his try. So did Sasuke when he threw his shuriken. But Sara just sat around. He was a little disappointed because he honestly expected something tricky from the mysterious top student.

Sara shook her head. "No."

Kakashi lazily inclined his head. "Ahh you do want to go back to the Academy then?"

The corner of Sara's lips twitched. "Of course not. It's just no use really."

"Giving up that early?" Kakashi asked, doing the hand formation for the genjutsu he planned to put her in.

Sara shrugged. "It's no use because I'm on my own."

Kakashi almost paused at that. _Ah she figured out what the test is. Of course, nothing less for the brightest student of their batch. That's why she was offering Naruto help._

He casted the genjutsu. "Lesson 2, Genjutsu." He said. But Sara just turned around and brushed off the genjutsu as if it was just some insect, and she hopped away.

That wasn't an ordinary genjutsu too. Sara must have extremely good control of her own chakra to brush it off without it even entering her senses. Kakashi was mildly impressed. As it was, she was already hidden again. With a sigh, Kakashi walked back to where he knew Sasuke would be.

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Sara crouched down in front of Sasuke, his head the only part of his body visible because the rest of him was buried under ground.

"Need a hand?" She asked. Sasuke sighed but grunted his assent, looking away in embarrassment. She carefully dug him out, pulling out Sasuke's weight to get him above ground again.

Sasuke's brows furrowed and he turned away from her, unable to meet her gaze.

Sara sighed. "Want to tag team to get the bell?"

Sasuke threw her a cold look. "No."

Sara looked down dejectedly, inwardly exasperated at her proud teammates.

"It's just..." Sasuke continued, surprising Sara. She looked up, seeing his jaw clench. "It's not that I don't want.." He took a deep breath. "I can do it on my own." He finally said, glancing at her as if assessing her expression.

But she just stared at him, wondering what he was trying to say. Sasuke clicked his tongue and walked away, shaking his head.

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The bell soon rang.

Sara returned to the log to find Naruto tied down. He must have tried to steal the lunches like in canon. Sasuke arrived too and he had a glower on his face. He must be pissed that he didn't get a bell.

Kakashi came too, looking like he couldn't care less that noone got the bells. Naruto and Sasuke scowled at him.

"Your stomachs are growling eh?" Despite the secret breakfast she gave the two, they still spent some time wasting energy on chasing Kakashi under the heat of the sun, so the boys definitely looked famished.

"By the way, about the results of this training. None of you need to return to the Ninja Academy." He announced.

Naruto gasped, his eyes tearing up. Sasuke didn't react outwardly but he looked pleased with himself. Sara had a book open on her lap, and she threw glances at it while she stared at Kakashi.

Naruto beamed. "Does that mean that we three..."

Kakashi smiled. "Yeah, you three..." He paused dramatically. Sara rolled her eyes. "...should quit being ninjas!"

There was a beat of silence. Then suddenly, Naruto started flailing his feet and screaming. "Quit being ninjas? What do you mean? We couldn't get a bell. But why do you have to say we should quit?"

Kakashi shrugged uncaringly. "Because you three are just kids who don't even deserve to be ninjas. "

That was the end of Sasuke's patience too. He lunged at Kakashi in pure fury. But of course, that was just silly. One moment, Sasuke was running towards him. The next moment, Kakashi was sitting on Sasuke, twisting Sasuke's arm and stepping on his head. Sasuke twitched under him in anger.

Kakashi solemnly glared at them. "Do you guys think that being a ninja is easy? Why do you think we're training by breaking up into groups?" He exhaled heavily. "In other words, you three don't understand the answer to this test."

Naruto furiously struggled on his binds. "The answer?"

"Geez, are your brains empty? You don't understand why you're all in a group?" Kakashi growled.

"So what about three people in a group?" Naruto insisted, confusion on his face.

Sara sighed, turning the page of her book. "Teamwork."

Naruto's mouth dropped open as he stared at Sara. "S-Sara chan?"

"Cooperate with each other. The test was designed to put us against each other, that's why there are only two bells." Sara answered. Realization dawned on her teammates' faces, probably remembering the insistent hand she kept on offering. Naruto looked shocked while Sasuke gritted his teeth.

She wondered if team 7 would put through the test this time. In canon, they did. But she might have caused some changes. She hoped not. As much as she wanted to escape team 7, failing would delay the two. And that might be a drastic change she didn't want to cause.

Kakashi threw her a knowing look. But he nodded in agreement. "In this situation, we select those who prioritize teamwork before themselves. That was the purpose, but all of you were pathetic. "

"Naruto! All you did was work on your own. You dove head on without a thought, not bothering to consider what your teammates could help you with." Naruto flinched, knowing Kakashi was right.

"Sasuke, you assumed that those two were only going to burden you and did everything yourself. You are aggressive and inconsiderate." Sasuke's jaw set, and he glared at the ground hatefully.

"Sara..." Kakashi paused. "You knew the answer to the test. Why didn't you try harder to make your teammates do teamwork?"

Sara frowned. "But that would destroy the essence of the test. If I told them, then they would do teamwork because it was the answer to the test, not because they actually wanted to help each other."

Kakashi's brows raised at that. _That was very wise._

"A test within a test then? That would risk your team failing though."

Sara shrugged. "I'd rather go back to the Academy and find people who would genuinely have my back. I don't want to fight on the field thinking that I could only force my teammates to work with me if a rule says so."

Kakashi smiled at her. "Well you might have a chance to find better people to work with then."

Naruto's lips trembled and he looked down dejectedly. Sasuke buried his face on the ground. They both knew that Sara had actually offered to help. It was idiotic to reject it. They knew Sara was the most skilled out of them, but they wanted to prove that they could do it on their own.

Kakashi then launched to his speech about missions and teams, and explained the cenotaph, the rock with the names of the dead heroes on it. Sara half listened and half continued reading.

Finally, Kakashi sighed. He considered the three of them. "I'll give you one more chance." He said. "However, the battle for the bell will be much harsher after lunch. Eat lunch only if you are up to the challenge. But! Don't let Naruto eat." Naruto winced, his stomach growling loudly in response. "This is punishment for breaking the rules and trying to eat lunch early! If anyone feeds him, the person will immediately fail. I'm the rule here, got it?"

He gave them one last glare before he poof-ed away.

Sara and Sasuke opened their bentos.

Sara slowly ate hers, staring into the distance. This was it, she hoped they would pass the test. She considered intruding if the two still stubbornly refused to cooperate with each other. But she wasn't sure she should.

Naruto's fists were clenched tightly. "I'm okay, even if I don't eat." He shouted passionately. But his stomach kept growling. Sara wondered why he was so hungry, especially since she gave him breakfast earlier. His metabolism must be really fast.

"Okay..." He mumbled, depressed.

Sara looked up to find Sasuke looking at Naruto, a considerate expression flashing on his face as he stared at the hungry boy.

Sara swallowed quietly, fervently wishing that he would do it. His stare seemed to take a long time, but finally, he slowly lifted his bento towards Naruto. Sara felt like shouting in joy.

"Here." He said in a quiet voice. He met Sara's eyes and she gave him a bright smile. For a moment, it seemed like he smiled back. But Sara blinked and he was already looking at Naruto again.

"Don't worry, I don't sense him nearby. We three are going to get the bells together. It's only going to be trouble if you're hungry." He continued, as Naruto stared at him with a frightened expression.

Sara beamed as she also lifted her bento to him. "He's right. Here Naruto, I'll feed you."

Naruto's lips trembled, looking between her and Sasuke. He mumbled his gratitude and started eating with them. Sara and Sasuke both shared their food with him. It was funny to see Sasuke also feed Naruto.

Exactly after they eat the last bites of their bento, Kakashi suddenly appeared with a crash of thunder and a fume of smoke.

Sara wanted to roll her eyes at the theatrics. But she kept a blank face.

Naruto screamed in surprise and terror.

"You three broke the rule. Are you prepared for punishment?" Kakashi hissed. Dark clouds started to form above them. Sara stared at them in fascination. She wondered whether it'd be easier to learn the jutsu, or if she could make a seal to have the same effect.

"Any last words?"

Naruto's eyes were bulging. "But but! You said..! That's why these two..."

Sasuke crouched, preparing to strike. "That's right. We are a three man team!"

Naruto shivered but his eyes gleamed. "Yeah yeah yeah! That's right!"

Sara raised her arms and happily cheered. "Yay Team 7!"

Naruto and Sasuke both looked at their happy teammate. Then suddenly, they both straightened up, a smile under their determined faces. They looked ready to fight.

Kakashi smirked in amusement. It was obvious that they both look up to the lone kunoichi of their team. Iruka told Kakashi that Sara expressed her distaste for the team the moment he announced it. Kakashi knew that this was really the reason why they adamantly refused her help earlier. Sara was the strongest and the brightest in class. Maybe they wanted to show that they were competent too. It was probably thrilling to be teamed up with the mysterious popular girl, but it must have been a downer to hear that she didn't want them.

Kakashi was first worried that they might hold it against the girl. But it didn't seem like that. They wanted her recognition, just like everyone else in class, as Iruka mentioned.

It greatly dejected the boys when she casually mentioned wanting to find better teammates who would have her back. He watched their crestfallen faces as she rubbed it on their faces that she offered help, and they were simple idiots not to accept it.

 _Children._ Kakashi thought, amused. Then again, Sara had this charm. She was completely unaware of it though, that's why people around her end up wanting to be friends with her, rather than jealously fighting her. If anything, people were actually jealous of _Hinata_ because she got to hang around Sara so much. But Hinata was such a sweet girl that it was hard to hate her too. So people left them alone in the end, watching curiously from a distance.

Kakashi shook his head, crouching over the little kids. He took a deep breath and smiled widely, which stunned them.

"You pass!"

Sasuke and Naruto froze in place, warily eyeing their weird sensei. Sara just smiled contentedly, opening a book on her lap again.

Kakashi chuckled. "You pass." He repeated. "You three are the first. People I had previously were blockheads who just listened to what I said."

He cleared his throat and stared at a distance. "Ninjas need to think beyond the normal. In the ninja world, those who break the rules are scum. But those who don't take care of their friends are even worse than scum."

Naruto sniffed, tearing up again as he stared at his seemingly shining sensei. "He's...He's kind of cool."

Sara nodded enthusiastically at the side. "Kakashi sensei is the best!"

Kakashi shook his head, patting the girl's head, much to the girl's delight.

 _She's such a jolly girl. "_ The training ends here. Everyone passes. The 7th group will start doing missions starting tomorrow."

Sighing, he looked long at each member of his new team. Naruto, the determined idiot. Sasuke, the vengeful jerk. And Sara, the oblivious happy girl. _Well, it could have been worse._ Kakashi thought, resigned. But he smiled, knowing that this team had a great potential.

And with that, he poof-ed away again.

Sara dutifully cut Naruto's ropes and beamed at him.

Naruto rubbed the ropes' dents on his arms. "So so so! Wanna have dinner Sara chan?"

Sara apologetically shook her head. "Aw not this time Naruto. I'm off to bug Hinata." She paused. "Next time though, will you join the two of us?"

Naruto's eyes brightened, nodding eagerly. "Yes! That would be great!"

Sara grinned mischievously, already planning to pack ice and cloth because Hinata was sure to faint a lot again. Sara slugged her backpack on her shoulder. "Anyway, we're going to meet tomorrow for the training session, remember? Let's just have breakfast instead."

She turned to Sasuke, who was already walking away.

"You're coming tommorrow too right? I still have to show you the useful technique I promised."

Sasuke didn't even look back. But he said "Hn." She assumed it meant yes.


	8. Chapter 8 - Try though you might fail

Chapter 8 – Try though you might fail

Summary: She was just a sickly girl back home, living her short life to its fullest. She was supposed to die, but she woke up in an entirely new world as a completely different person in a baby's body.

 **A/N:**

 **1\. Firstly, thank you for everyone who liked the story! I haven't polished the idea of the whole story yet so I'm just really glad that a lot of people liked the setting and the way this story is growing.**

 **2\. Thank you for everyone who made their reviews too. I appreciate the thoughts and I would definitely weave them as I write.**

 **3\. Sara was actually just saying the truth when she told them that she didn't want people who couldn't watch her back. Maybe it was a little mean, but she knew how messed up team 7 would be, so let's just say that she was hinting on it. And yeah, she was hoping she could push someone to act on teamwork.**

 **4\. Sara is a fan of the cannon timeline, that was why she was initially dedicated to not changing anything. But since she's at the heart of it all now, she'll develop her own side of the story, and maintain a relevant character as the story progresses.**

 **5\. I realize that she does sound too perfect. I think that she's just investing in a lot now because Sasuke and Naruto would suddenly grow super strong in the future. She's actually not perfect though, she'll have a few problems on the way so let's watch out for that.**

 **Thank you again and don't forget to give comments!**

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"This is Sasuke, arrived at Point B." Sasuke said in a low voice from the spot he was hiding in, behind the pavement around the corner.

Sara slowly climbed up to her position on the roof, peaking down at their target area. "This is Sara arrived at point C."

Silence was the only response for a few seconds.

After a few beats, the radio finally cackled again. "This is Naruto arrived at point A." Naruto said from the roof on the other side of Sara's.

Kakashi's sigh was heard through the radio they were using to communicate with each other. "You're slow, Naruto."

Sara giggled. "He was just making sure he's positioned perfectly." She shot a conspiring wink at Naruto from her position, raising her head a little to catch his gaze. Naruto gave her a wide grin in response, nodding his head as if she was totally right about the excuse she came up with for him.

Kakashi rolled his eyes. "Don't side with him Sara. You're always spoiling him."

"And you're always not. So it's only fair." She replied cheekily, tossing a look at Kakashi and raising her brows up and down. Kakashi was situated at a high pole which overlooked all the positions of his students. He just shook his head at her, giving her a disapproving frown.

"Spoiled brat." Sasuke murmured, his eyes still on their target even as he jumped in to infuriate Naruto, as always. If he didn't say a word, it would have looked like he didn't care about their earlier conversation and was totally engrossed on the mission. But as it was, of course he just had to piss the blond again.

Naruto growled, his usual temper flaring. "WHAT DID YOU SAY?"

Sasuke glared at him. "Yeah that's right Dobe. Scream. Chase our target away."

Naruto flushed in anger, his cheeks turning red as he huffed at the boy beneath his position. But he pursed his lips to stop another angry hiss anyway. It already took some time for them to locate the target. He didn't want it to notice that they were at its tail, and make an escape again. Fortunately, the cat didn't look like it noticed anything and just continued about with its business, lying on the ground leisurely.

Exhaling in relief, Naruto casted an annoyed look at Sasuke. "Whatever Teme. You're just jealous."

Sara cleared her throat, knowing that the boys were about to launch another pissing contest. She raised a hand and signaled to Naruto. "So what will you have us do, leader?"

Tearing his angry glare away from Sasuke, Naruto sighed and made himself focus on the task at hand. He sat in a crouching position and surveyed the location, his eyes narrowing as he spotted the cat they were supposed to 'rescue', rubbing itself contentedly behind the bins.

"I would say let's just jump on it now but..."

"But you know it's not a good strategy." Sara finished, eyeing him with a look. The area was too open. There were too many alleys and routes for the cat to escape to. The moment they make any sudden movements, the cat would simply slip away again. They'd have to track it down once more if that happens.

Naruto pouted at that, but he dutifully returned his gaze on the area and scratched his head in thought. His eyes ran on where Sasuke was situated, the latter scoffing at him for his inability to come up with a good way to catch the cat. Naruto's fists clenched at that. Stupid Sasuke had been able to command the team in catching the cat quickly and efficiently before. Naruto refused to lose to the jerk. So he narrowed his eyes and swept the place with a careful gaze.

Then as if a lightbulb appeared above his head, he straightened up in realization of something. He eyed all the exits and he mentally calculated all the resource at hand that they could use. He formulated how he would execute his newly formed plan. Finally, his eyes brightened giddily and he softly clapped his hands once. His lips started to twist in a slow manic grin.

"Alright team, gather up. I have a plan."

Kakashi watched his students with amusement as they reconvened, shaking his head as he wondered exactly what Naruto was planning. As the hailed King of Pranks, Kakashi was sure Naruto would make a mess.

It was a wonder that doing the D ranks missions with this team didn't bore Kakashi at all. He initially prepared to resign himself in doing the village chores for the next months, knowing that it was an inevitable task when he finally passed a genin team. He even prepared his books to make sure he wouldn't die of boredom, because of course, he wasn't really going to do the D ranks himself. He was supposed to only "supervise", which for Kakashi meant "just don't let them die". He was fully prepared to sit back and read while they finish the chores.

But he ended up watching his team's antics every time, stuffing his nose on his book and pretending to read while minutely observing the kids.

The kids always turned their D rank missions into incredibly challenging games and tasks. It was all Sara's idea at first. The first time they had the mission on catching Tora, the cat, Sara informed her teammates that it was a pretty popular mission, and that they would probably get this same mission again sometime in the future.

So she suggested that they each take turns in leading the team to catch the cat. She said that this would demonstrate the team's mobility when one of them had to take the lead. It was also an exercise of showing their strengths and their understanding of the others' by crafting a team plan to catch the cat. The "leader" had to analyze exactly which strength of their teammates they would craftily use for the plan he/she had formulated.

You'd think that they were planning an actual assault and rescue with the way the team actually went on about it.

Kakashi was even tasked to step back and follow their order as well. He was momentarily shocked at that. As the actual team leader, Kakashi was a little miffed for being ordered around. But he was curious of their plans, so he yielded anyway and observed with interest. Sara was right after all, this was a good chance for each of the kids to try to lead.

Sara went first. Her strategy was the smartest. She observed the house where the cat lived in to investigate exactly how the cat acted. She profiled the cat, found out that it liked open and quiet spaces (because the majority of the cat fur gathered around isolated balconies, terraces, and empty rooms with the windows wide open.), that its favorite food were beans and mushrooms (because the other cat food was still full and those beans packets were already ¾ eaten), that it was attracted to darker colors (because of the numerous scratches on specific colors on the walls) and so on.

Kakashi watched with fascination as Sara completely profiled the cat then went about to catch it using the knowledge. She traced where the cat would be and lured it out from its hiding place using the information she gathered. It amazed Kakashi, to say the least, that she managed to pat down the cat as if it was an actual criminal on the loose.

Sasuke went next. His strategy was the most precise and the most efficient. He simply overpowered the cat by applying ninja cornering tactics and placing each of his teammates in their most beneficial positions. He placed Sara on the roof because she had the chakra control needed to stay there and not fall off, and she had to use that same control so she could stealthily observe and follow without alerting the cat. Her task was to watch from above and relay to the rest of the team where the cat will go.

He put Naruto on the easy exits of alleys because he provided a great distraction. Putting Naruto there would push the cat to choose another alley to escape to. His task was to manipulate the cat into taking alleys that Sasuke and Kakashi could easily slip through. So he made messes and loud displays on the alleys the cat shouldn't go through. It worked perfectly because he successfully frightened the cat whenever it turned up, forcing it to run away to the opposite direction.

Sasuke put Kakashi in front of him so Kakashi could help track the cat as it ran. Kakashi and Sara made the perfect navigation team because Sara would describe the next alleys they would encounter and where the cat would most likely run to, then Kakashi would tell him exactly where they were on the alleys Sara mentioned.

Finally, Sasuke's task was simply to catch the cat. He was fast and ruthless, and aided by his team, Sasuke easily caught the target.

And now, it looked like Naruto's plan would be the grandest. Kakashi didn't say it was the greatest or the best one out of the three. Simply, it meant that Naruto's plan would prove to be the most flamboyant.

And it was.

Naruto actually pranked the cat.

He used colorful powders, small but loud explosives, strings, papers, and numerous assortments of stuff, which his teammates helped set up sneakily around the place the cat was lounging in. Sara looked fascinated as she did this, studying Naruto's step by step plan into the prank. Sasuke looked indifferent, following his temporary leader with an annoyed sigh. He was a little curious whether the elaborate plan would work though.

After some coaxing, the cat finally moved and it set off a series of events that the cat would have never expected. The prank effectively trapped the cat in a hilarious situation of slipping, jumping, being squeezed and being tossed into 5 directions before it ended with it hanging upside down, a single rope tied on its tail. Its fur turned rainbow color, and its mouth hanged open in a shocked expression because of how fast it all happened.

The mini explosions and the popping of colors startled the kids playing on the streets. They immediately gathered around the area, their faces morphing into awe as they surveyed the after-prank scene. They clapped their hands happily, laughing and pointing at the colorful swinging upside down cat.

As Kakashi thought, it was Naruto's plan so of course it would be loud and extravagant.

Naruto guffawed in bursts of laughter as the cat swayed about defenselessly on his strings.

Kakashi rubbed his head, pretending to be exasperated, even though he was really amused. "I am not cleaning that cat up. We have to return it in pristine condition to the daimyo's wife."

Naruto was still shaking with laughter, waving his hand away in dismissal. "Yeah yeah I know. It was still totally worth it. Stupid cat."

Sasuke actually looked satisfied, glaring vindictively at the cat that was still too shocked to even utter a sweet meow. The cat always escaped so it constantly needed to be rescued. Sometimes, you just have to teach it a lesson. And Naruto delivered, to Sasuke's grudging admission.

Sara just giggled, giving a thumbs up to Naruto while the boy chuckled in victory.

Kakashi crossed his arms and made a show of sighing heavily. "What am I going to do with you three?"

Sara happily twirled towards him and batted her eyelashes. "Love us?"

"Ha! I told ya I can do it!" Naruto bragged loudly, staring up proudly at the swaying cat, and sticking a tongue out to his rival.

"Decent job, if nothing else." Sasuke scoffed, waving his hand in dismissal.

Naruto's face twisted into a scowl. "Nothing else? Well it was still so much more satisfying than your boring plan!"

Sara shrugged at them and proceeded to skip towards Kakashi, beaming widely, as always. She probably preferred to come to him instead of stopping the 2 fight again. So she ignored the bickering behind her and tilted her head on her sensei.

"The next time we get this mission, you'll lead us." She casually informed him.

Kakashi raised his brows questioningly. "You think you need to test me?"

Sara rolled her eyes and scoffed. "Of course not. You could probably get the cat 5 minutes after the mission was given."

"So could the three of you." He admonished, though his single eye gleamed with approval, telling her that he wasn't really scolding her. "You three just always make it so much harder."

Sara shrugged and twirled the tips of her hair on a finger, smiling mischievously. "Well duh. Where's the fun in doing it straight?"

Kakashi just shook his head and mumbled something that sounded like "crazy rowdy kids."

"So why am I leading you?"

"Because after experiencing bouts of leadership, now we need to learn how to act under your orders. Think of it as a trust exercise. We're going to follow you in missions after all, we need to learn how to operate under that."

 _Wise as always._ Kakashi thought, smiling down at his only female student.

It went like this in all their D rank missions. Somehow, someway, they managed to turn all their easy missions into all out draining strategic exercises. Kakashi knew that they were really converting their D ranks into subtle trainings. They turn grocery shopping into information extraction and manipulation, babysitting into data inception, gardening into perfect organization and rearrangement, and catching Tora the cat into a high rank rescue mission.

The difficulty of the challenges even shut up the energetic Naruto into submission every time. Of course, Naruto often complained about how tiring all of it was. But Naruto set about the job anyway as seriously as the other two. Kakashi guessed that Naruto really preferred training and spending time with their dysfunctional team than going home alone in his messy and lonely apartment. Even if hanging around with their team meant putting up with his rival.

So no matter how much he complained, Naruto would plan with the two and even actively participate in executing the plans.

Kakashi personally thought it was a clever and a good use of team time. It was definitely a hassle, but they were shaping up into a talented genin team. They were multitasking after all; completing village chores and training at the same time.

Besides, they usually part ways after missions, so there was really no other time to do proper training sessions. This was not including mornings though, because Kakashi found out that his team actually trained together every morning. In fact, after trainings, they would even have breakfast together. He knew this because Sara never failed to bring him something from their breakfast every day.

"Sensei." Speaking of. "Here! It's Ichiraku again because Naruto was about to revolt earlier." She giggled, holding up a bento box for him.

"Maa Sara chan, I told you not to bring me anything anymore." Kakashi mumbled, politely shaking his head on the offered bento.

Sara pouted, leaning in closer to him. "Well I already did. Now do what you want with it, throw it away or whatever. But you're taking it." She shoved the bento in his hands.

Kakashi took it, sighing defeatedly. "It's just takeout too." He eyed the Ichiraku logo branded at the top of the box, tutting in disapproval.

"Now I thought you didn't want me bringing you anything, and now you're possibly suggesting I cook you homemade?" Sara tilted her head back and laughed. "I could always _try_ and cook you something again."

Kakashi quickly shook his head, his single eye widening. "Oh, no please. Have mercy on my taste buds." The last time she tried to cook something for the team, he noticed how disgruntled the other boys were when they all met for the day and how they watched him vindictively with evil smiles as Sara handed his bento to him. It seemed like they already ate some of it during their breakfast together, and now they were sharing the misfortune of it with him.

Later when he went home, he realized exactly why they looked so smug as he puked out the contents in his toilet bowl.

Sara's eyes twinkled. "So you do eat what I give you after all!"

"Well I wouldn't waste food. And it's free." Kakashi simply told her, shrugging. It was comforting to say the least, to eat what they bought for him. Even if he didn't have breakfast with them, it felt like he did. He didn't know why it was important, but maybe the kids were taking his teamwork lesson to heart, and it made him satisfied if nothing else.

He watched the 2 boys still arguing on the other side, then switched his gaze to the little girl who was looking up at him with such admiration. He chuckled at that. Sara really was an oddball. She was still fairly mysterious because it was obvious that she was always holding back. Kakashi didn't have the faintest idea what it could be. She had no clan so he had no reference what she could have up her sleeve. But it was still apparent that Sara was simply a sweet little girl who cared about the people she hanged around with.

He almost envied her. She was so innocent and pure, and she obviously never had a tragedy on her life yet. She might be an orphan, but she never witnessed the cruelty of the world, unlike Naruto and Sasuke. He almost felt bad knowing that there would come a time when that innocence would shatter, because such was the life of a ninja. So while she was still happy, he could let her get away with it, let her enjoy the last free moments of her life.

He gave her a jolly eye smile and patted her head.

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On Sara's part, she really didn't mean to do all that.

She wasn't trying to make team 7 better. She wasn't even trying to make their relationship with each other better. She was still a big fan of the canon timeline and she believed that a dysfunctional team 7 would serve a higher purpose in the future. The love hate relationship of Sasuke and Naruto was the underlying plot line of the whole series, and it was also Naruto's greatest motivation when he was trying to get stronger.

But as it was, she was just really _bored._

When she thought about it before, she knew that the D rank missions would be a complete waste of her time. She understood that it was supposed to help them with their team dynamics and introduce them softly to doing missions. But Sara had never been idle ever since she was born into this world. Even at 1 year old, she already occupied her time learning something new every minute of the day.

It irked her to think about wasting half of the day doing menial things when she could be mastering the impossible area of medical ninjutsu.

So she made their D ranks interesting, if nothing else. It looked like Kakashi was entertained by it. And both Sasuke and Naruto were really focusing on it, trying to outdo each other every time. So it was a win. The team improvement and the harnessing of their own individual ninja skills were just bonuses in the end. She wasn't trying to be smart and determined. It really just happened.

"Helloooo. Earth to Sara!" Ino's snarky voice intruded in her thoughts. When she snapped her head towards the voice, she found Ino smirking at her.

Sara blinked. "Um what?"

Ino gestured outside the window of the coffee shop they were currently in. "You were totally ogling your sensei's ass."

Sara blinked several more times in confusion and looked out the window again. Ino was right, Kakashi was there, strolling lazily with his orange book in hand. But she wasn't ogling him earlier. She just happened to stare out the window and dazed off. Again, things just happen.

But now that he was there, might as well ogle the fine man that was her sensei.

She sighed and put her chin on her hands.

Hinata giggled beside her. "Sara told me that she thinks her sensei is sexy. Should I tell Neji niisan that he has competition?"

Sakura gasped from Ino's side, but she ended up laughing as well. "Your taste in men is strange Sara chan." She shook her head. "And you never liked Sasuke. He might be difficult, but he was our classmate and now he's your teammate! But no, you want strange impossible men. You always had a higher standard."

Sara rolled her eyes, her lips twitching in amusement. "Oh honey, Sasuke is also pretty impossible. He's just too boyish for me." Sasuke was literally a child to her. After all, she was mentally closer to Kakashi's age than Sasuke's. Not that she was actually salivating over her teacher. Kakashi was just really a fine man. And speaking of Neji, she only mentioned Neji offhandedly before because she spotted him walking randomly by their classroom. But in truth, Neji was also a child to her. One of these days, she just had to accept that she was a child now too.

She pretended to scowl at Hinata. "And no. You will not say a word to Neji. I'm just glad that he never found out that I'm the reason his fangirls increased by a whole academy batch."

Hinata bit the inside of her cheeks to stop herself from laughing, patting Sara's back reassuringly.

Sakura sniffed and crossed her arms. "Sasuke is closer to a man than any of the boys in our class!"

Sara raised her palms up, chuckling. "Spoken like a girl in love." Sakura smirked triumphantly and nodded in victory, feeling like she successfully defended her crush.

But Sara looked at Sakura seriously and leaned closer to her, eyeing her smile with concern. "So, how are things going with you?" She asked the pink haired girl softly.

Sakura's face fell at that, looking embarrassed as her gaze shifted to Hinata, Ino, then landed again on Sara. Her eyes watered, then she bit her lip and looked away.

"Mmm...good, I guess?"

Sakura failed her team exam. It was expected for Sara because even in cannon, only teams 7, 8, and 10 managed to pull through. And Sakura simply wasn't strong enough yet to carry her whole team by herself. In fact, if Sara was being honest, the only reason Sakura passed her exam in cannon was because she was with Sasuke and Naruto.

Sara felt so guilty because of that. She took the boys away from Sakura when Sara placed herself in that team, even if it was just a lack of foresight on her part. Sakura could have been a legend beside the two of them. But now, she didn't even have a team. She didn't even make it to be a part of the Rookie 9. Sara wallowed in guilt for the girl.

The day after all of Rookie 9 except for Sakura, passed, she dragged Hinata and Ino to visit the would-have-been medic.

Sakura and Ino were her friends, but they weren't that close to her back in the Academy. However, this incident continued to flood her heart, so she just had to be there for the girl. Besides, she liked the 2. Hinata was her best friend through and through. But she also admired the 2 girls who would grow up to be strong and competent kunoichis in the future.

Ino was actually about to visit Sakura when Hinata and Sara tagged along. Together, they all treated Sakura to a girl's night out. Sara felt so silly doing that; makeovers, movies, magazines, gossips, shopping the next day. Sara had always been a bit boyish, even in her past life. It was also a rare time when Sara put down her books completely and just focused on having a good time. So Sakura smiled contentedly through her teary eyes and Sara felt happy for that.

Ino and Sakura were all giddy, sticking to her the whole time. Hinata giggled as she told Sara that it was probably the thrill of being the sole focus of the most popular girl in school that made them so excited. Sara rolled her eyes at that.

Sakura was sad that she had to take another 2 years at the Academy before she could take another team test. But Ino and Sara promised her that it would be great because they would be so much more experienced at that time, so they could both teach Sakura everything they know. Hinata quietly agreed at the side, holding Sakura's clenched fists comfortingly. Sara told her that the whole of Rookie 9 won't hesitate to help her when the time comes. (Sara had to force a nod when Sakura asked "Even Sasuke-kun?" enthusiastically.)

The worst part of taking Sakura's place was that it looked like Sara wouldn't be as good at what Sakura did.

"Cardiac Surgery, recent advances and techniques." Hinata read the book she had opened on her lap under the coffee table. Hinata looked at her with disbelief. "Why are you so fascinated with the cardiovascular system these days? It's a little shocking because you just learned how to do a chakra scalpel, and now you're trying to learn how to do a heart surgery?"

 _Because the stupid wave mission is coming! "_ Eh it's just random light reading." Sara shrugged off nonchalantly, trying to look calm while she sipped her coffee.

Hinata raised her brows. "Light reading? You read about nothing else but this subject for the past 2 months."

Ino's eyes widened, gawking at Sara with her mouth open. "No way! I heard that you can read a hundred books per week! If you read nothing else for 2 months..."

"Aren't you jumping too far?" Sakura commented, frowning at her. "I continued reading medical journals and books because the first one you gave me was really interesting." Sara sighed. Of course Sakura would be a natural at this. "But if you just learned the scalpel, then you can't jump to surgeries immediately. You need to learn more about the processes of the body and how medic chakra can affect them. And even then, you still have to learn more about the precise chakra balance to maximize the healing effect. And even then...!"

Sara sighed and closed her eyes, rubbing her temples tiredly. She knew that it was hilariously ridiculous to even attempt such a thing, surgery of the heart of all things. But the Wave Mission was coming and she really had no choice. She probably couldn't do it in the end, but she had to try. She felt bile coming up her throat as she thought about failing.

It was probably not the best plan anyway. She read fanfictions about scenarios where they were able to save both Haku and Zabuza. And it always seemed so easy, but in reality, it was extremely difficult. It was no easy feat to do a surgery after the heat of the battle. It was next to impossible to perform one on a body that had been Chidori'd. She studied about the effects of Chidori and she stole some medicinal archives on the bodies that were unfortunate enough to be hit by one. She saw the massive amounts of damage it had on those bodies, and she wondered how the hell she could reverse that.

Sara spent a lot of sleepless nights trying to find a solution.

She cursed herself because she only started learning medical jutsu three months ago after the team assignments. It really was a lack of foresight on her part. She could have studied it for a long time, but she just never expected to be in team 7 so she just did what she wanted, pore over her seals and condition her body to be stronger.

She wasn't perfect at all. She had never been physically strong even in her old life, so she spent years honing her body for Taijutsu in this new world. That was the only reason why she was leaps ahead on that area, because time was a gift she spent wisely. Sealing, on the other hand, came naturally at her because she was just good at formulas and balancing it. She was extremely smart so it also did her good. Chakra control was also an asset because she started off with really small chakra reserves for being a civilian. Controlling it had been a result of good practice and exercise.

Her ninjutsu was nonexistent. She had come to rely more on her seals, her arsenal including fire seals, water seals, wind seals, or anything that could be used as an offensive. While that was great, the downside of elemental seals was she couldn't adjust the technique if she wanted to. Like how Naruto converted his single rasengan to Rasenshuriken, Giant Rasengan (Odama Rasengan), Massive Rasengan (Cho odama Rasengan), Rasengan Barrage, Barrage line, Planetary Rasengan, etc.

If she really wanted to alter her seal, she needed to replace some symbols, and calculate its balance again before she could alter it in anyway. That would take time and quick thinking to pull it off. But she was still pretty dependent on it so up until now, she absolutely did not know any ninjutsu. That was still fine though because her seals could still do it for her. It was a valid alternative if nothing else.

But her medic jutsu was downright terrible. She had the control for it, but somehow, she couldn't absorb exactly how to do all of those chakra conversions and therapeutic applications. She couldn't connect to the system of whatever or whoever she was trying to heal. The fishes kept dying under her hands. And it terrified her to no end. The Wave mission was coming and she still couldn't grasp how to deliver her plan even after reading hundreds of books.

"Help me." She blurted out, cutting off Sakura's continued tirade.

Sakura, Ino and Hinata looked gob smacked at her plea. Her voice was clearly begging, and her eyes held Sakura's with such intensity.

Sara never asked for help. She was always so self-sufficient, that was why she could manage to stay on her own. Hinata was a companion and a friend, but even Hinata knew that Sara didn't really need her if it came down to it. Sara was always her own genius. But now, it looked like she was ready to get on her knees.

"Sakura." She repeated, because the other girls were still staring at her in surprised silence. "Help me."

Sakura's lips trembled nervously. "Mmm.. Mmmm. But. But Sara chan, how could I-"

"You understand this shit better." Sara cut her off, heaving a deep frustrated sigh. "And you love this. I can't, for the life of me, grasp how all of this works. So read the material then teach me. I promise to teach you how to fight in return."

Ino gasped at that. Everyone knew just how good Sara was, flipping everyone's assess off as if they weighed nothing. Even Sasuke's strength and combat genius couldn't beat her.

On Sara's end, Sakura was supposed to be the one in her place anyway. This way, she could make sure that the girl still lived up to her legend, and maybe she could even cajole Tsunade in the future into taking the both of them as her apprentice. After all, the original Sakura got Tsunade to get Ino for a short time too.

Sakura might learn at a slower pace than her, but she was positive that the girl will take everything she learned by heart. So whatever she learned would be of quality, and it would be passed down to Sara in good detail.

"Try to get an internship at the hospital and work there for experience. Teach me everything you will learn. If you do, I'll teach you some seals."

Sara was totally handing down the job to Sakura. But canon already proved that she would be good for it anyway. Sara already knew she couldn't do it on her own, as evidenced by all those poor fishes, and Naruto's and Sasuke's poor scowls whenever she had to try and heal them. This way, Sakura would still be an essential part of Rookie 9, as the same legend she would have been if she landed in Team 7. She just had to work through Sara. But really, same difference.

Sakura's lips slowly turned into a brilliant smile. "I was already planning on doing all that anyway. I mean, reading more medical books and interning at the hospital. When you gave me that book, I just fell in love with it. Teaching you would be great perk of it!"

Ino pouted beside them. "Aww I wish I had a knack of it too so I could join the club. How come you get all the goodies Sakura."

Sakura rolled her eyes. "I failed Ino! I have more time on my hands you know. I'm going to go through the same materials I already perfected for the next two years. Studying something else would be more productive for me."

Ino laughed weakly at that, remembering that Sakura actually had to go back to the Academy. "Oh. Er. Right. I could teach you some new things too when I learn about them."

Hinata giggled and shook her head. She nudged Sara on the shoulder. "I hope you'd relax more now. This cardio thing is stressing you up too much."

Sara smiled sadly. Ino and Sakura were already bickering infront of them. So she turned to Hinata and laid her head on her best friend's shoulder. "I'm just so tired Hina chan. Even with Sakura's help now, I still won't have enough time to finish this. Her help would be great later on, but for now..."

Hinata held her hand and squeezed it comfortingly. "Why? Are you on a deadline or something? Who do you need to perform heart surgery on?"

 _Ooops._ Sometimes, Sara knew that Hinata could see right through her. She was too close to Hinata. And Hinata was far from a dense and weak girl. Hinata was smart and she was always aware of her surroundings. Heck, Hinata knew what books she read every time. That's why Hinata knew that she had pored over Cardiovascular books for some time now.

And even though Sara knew that stepping back would be better, she couldn't let herself drift away from her friend. She just needed to believe that Hinata would trust her enough to let her get away with whatever Hinata would notice.

So Sara just sighed in response and shook her head.

Hinata stared at her from the corner of her eyes for a long time, before nodding her head in understanding. Sara was pretty sure that Hinata didn't really understand. But her friend was kind enough to just accept it for her.

"You know." Hinata said, patting Sara's hand lightly. "Sometimes, all that matters is that we try hard enough."

Sara raised her head and blinked at her curiously. "What do you mean?"

Hinata shrugged and smiled kindly at her. "Maybe you won't be able to pull it off. Honestly, who can? But know that you tried. And sometimes, that's all that matters."

Maybe Hinata understood after all.

But failing still weighs heavily in her heart. Failing meant letting someone die. Death wasn't a new concept to her. She had to deal with the possibility of dying ever since she was 5 years old in her old world. But at that time, she was dealing with her own death.

Now, letting someone die when she knew about it beforehand was terrifying for her. She couldn't let it happen. She didn't know these people yet, but it still scared her. It was like playing God. The lives were on her hands, and if she wasn't careful, they would slip away as if they meant nothing.

She wished someone else had taken this burden. It was different when she was just Sara and she wasn't in team 7. It was okay to let it all happen when she was outside of the main story. It would have been like watching the anime from the sidelines. She didn't have to see it. She didn't have to experience it. She never had to meet these people. She would never know them. They would be mere names that happened outside of her circle.

But now, she knew she would have to watch people die because she's directly in the frontline. She would see it happen, the Chidori through Haku's chest and dying while confessing his eternal loyalty to his master. And then his master would die, confessing his love and care for his student, who would never hear it because he was already dead.

She shivered. It felt so heavy. She looked down on her hands and she knew she wasn't strong enough. It was so hard, and she was so close to just letting all of it happen and not giving a damn. But she fell in love with this world, and she loved the people in it. It was such a beautiful world of magic. But she now had a major responsibility as the third member of team 7. She needed to save the world with her team. She felt like choking.

She gripped Hinata's hand, wishing she could tell her best friend and just share the burden. Hinata's reassuring squeeze made her feel better. She wasn't alone at least.

But because of it all, for the first time in this new life, she wished she wasn't born into this world.

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"Itadakimasu!"

"Shut up Dobe. You're killing my head." Sasuke groaned, his eyes closed tightly as he rubbed his temples.

Naruto stuck his tongue out. "Weak ass."

Sasuke's eyes snapped open. He eyed the blond, who was clearly still energetic and lively, digging in his food with much gusto. Sasuke's face morphed into a fierce scowl, cursing the heavens for all his rotten luck. "I can't even grasp how you're not dead on your feet right now."

"Well." Naruto smirked, shrugging 'meekly'. Sasuke's eyes narrowed at that. "What can I say, I'm clearly just awesome. Why? Are you totally exhausted, baby Sasuke?"

Sasuke's fists clenched. And for a moment, it looked like he was going to throw a vicious punch at Naruto. But after a few tense beats, he just sneered and straightened his back, even puffing his chest out. "Of course not."

Sara rolled her eyes and sighed at the two. They just finished their morning training session today. They were currently having breakfast at a new restaurant because Sasuke and Sara were sick and tired of Naruto's Ichiraku streak. To be honest, Sara didn't really expect them to keep training with her. As far as she knew, Sasuke always went solo in canon. And Naruto would go around the town to cause trouble in his free time. More than likely, he would still be asleep at this time.

But somehow, after the first time she took them through her morning obstacles after that bell test, they made it a point to come every day.

Every. Day.

Even Hinata couldn't handle trying to torture her body through her hellish exercise every single day.

The first time the boys tried it, they only managed to go through half before they dropped exhaustedly on the ground, every muscle paralyzed from shock. Of course they'd be shocked. They couldn't just push their bodies like that so suddenly. So Sara told them they could go under a shade and wait for her to finish. But Sasuke merely glanced at her for a minute or so, eyeing her form with narrowed eyes, before he forced himself to get up and continue on. Of course, Naruto saw him do that so he also got up and pushed himself to continue.

They went on a slower pace while Sara left them behind. She was not about to be held back on her own training just because they were behind her. It made Sasuke try to push harder, and Naruto followed suit. After they finally finished, the boys looked broken, sprawled unattractively on the ground, their vision filled with floating black spots, and their ears ringing.

Sara, on the other hand, was still performing a cool down exercise and was calmly stretching, as if she didn't just go through the rollercoaster of death that was her training, at a much faster rate than both Sasuke and Naruto. Sasuke glared at her with such ferocity while Naruto stared up at her with a pout.

Sara kindly told them that she had been doing this for years. She wasn't great at taijutsu at all when she was starting. That was why she really invested in it. She even showed them her weights. That seemed like a bad idea though because their eyes widened comically, realizing that she could even go faster if she wanted to.

The next day, Sasuke bought weights for himself. Naruto was angry because he wanted one too. But after Sasuke tried to go through the training with his weights and ended up broken before he even reached half, Naruto laughed himself silly and was happy to be 'smart enough' to know that suddenly forcing weights was not a good idea. Or at least he tried convincing them that it was the reason why he didn't get weights.

Sasuke reluctantly got rid of his weights after Sara told him that he had to ease his body into it first, otherwise it would be damaged beyond repair.

The two of them came and bugged her everyday. It was obvious that they had a really hard time trying to keep up, as they always end up bruised and battered. And they only rested for a day every week, even though Sara told them to rest some more. Sasuke growled that Sara herself only got one resting day. Naruto said he just wanted to be awesome like her (the cutie patootie).

Hinata was happy to have more people whenever she came around to Sara's morning trainings too. (She was especially happy that one of those people was Naruto.) She was a little shy that Naruto would get to see her all sweaty and huffing, but Naruto was pretty focused in not dying while doing the obstacles. So eventually, Hinata relaxed and focused on her own training.

Sasuke was annoyed that Hinata got weights too. But Sara calmly told him that Hinata had trained with her for quite some time now so her body was at least conditioned to the intensity of it all.

Hinata cooked them meals whenever she could, much to Naruto's delight. Sara would try to keep Naruto from hugging Hinata as his thanks because Hinata would faint and Sara would have to carry her back to the Hyuga compound again. On second thought, that was extra training so she resolved to let Naruto do what he liked next time.

And so, it became a ritual between the three of them. They would always get breakfast right after because the two would usually be dead on their feet, and Sara just couldn't leave them there to rot in their own sweat. Unfortunately for Sasuke, Naruto would always recover quicker. Sara knew it was because of the Kyubi. So Sasuke was really lucked out on that.

"Well I'm pretty tired." Sara said with a smile. Naruto and Sasuke snorted in disbelief at her statement. She chuckled and just shook her head. "No, really. There's nothing wrong with being tired you know." Sasuke pursed his lips stubbornly while Naruto just gave her a weak smile. Obviously, they still hated being so worn out while she looked as fresh as coming out of the shower. Sara couldn't help being amused by them. Someday, they would suddenly power up and get to be on god levels. They were just little boys now, so they wouldn't even begin to believe how they could save the whole world someday with their sheer powers.

Well if they both wanted to follow her around like puppies, she certainly won't protest. Time was moving so fast after all. Before she knew it, chuunin exams would come and Sasuke would break up their makeshift peaceful team. So she was just letting them do what they want for now, be the cute boys they were while they were still at it.

Sara looked at the menu and hummed in thought.

Naruto glanced at her, noisily scarfing down and swallowing his food. "Are you choosing food for Kakashi sensei?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah." Sara answered distractedly, wondering what her teacher might like. He always graciously accepted the food, but she wasn't sure what he did with it. She wondered what he would appreciate.

"Why do you do that?" Sasuke suddenly asked her. Her eyes switched from the menu to Sasuke out of surprise. Sasuke wasn't always one to ask for anything. "I mean, you don't have to. And he might just be throwing it away, you know."

Sara blinked at him, frowning. "Well I just think it's nice to do that. Kakashi sensei is a part of our team after all. He's always alone, so I thought at least we could give him food."

Sasuke raised his brows. "You could try to invite him instead."

"He won't accept. You know him. Or he will probably accept, but he'll be so late that it'd be time for an afternoon snack when he comes." Sara explained, shaking her head dejectedly.

"Then just don't buy him food if he'll be like that anyway." Sasuke said bluntly. Naruto snickered beside them.

"Are you jealous again Sasuke? Leave Sara chan alone. If she wants to buy food for Bakakashi, then let her." He said, shooting Sasuke with a tight lipped grin.

Sasuke's nostrils flared, his cheeks burning. "Shut up Dobe! She makes us share the payment for his food! I have a say on it!"

"Oh, you don't have to share on it if you don't want to." Sara told him reassuringly, a smile on her face.

Sasuke glowered at her, his lips pursing. Sasuke and Naruto knew that Sara was actually poor. They knew that she had to sing before and after their D rank missions to buy herself some supplies. Sara never capitalized on this but her chivalrous teammates (even Sasuke, although he looked like someone had a gun on him.) always tried to make it easier for her. She never let them pay for her food though, so they just lend her cheap weapons and share on Kakashi's meal.

Sasuke tutted, crossing his arms. "No. I'll pay for that perverted sensei's food."

Sara grinned at him, nudging his shoulders fondly. "No, really. If you decide not to, it would really be okay."

Sasuke started mumbling grouchily, some of it sounded like "stubborn women."

Naruto ordered himself another bowl of food, while Sara just contentedly ate hers. She looked out the window, wondering when everything would start to fall apart. She knew the Wave mission was coming. It would be her first real exposure to the true dangers of this world. And it would be the first life on her hands.

She felt the skin on her neck prick, that heavy feeling of being watched, so she turned her head and found Sasuke staring at her.

He was giving her a look that demanded to know if she was alright. Sara forced a smile and shrugged. Sasuke's eyes narrowed at that.

Sighing, she put a cheek on her fist and leaned on the table, facing Sasuke. "Sasuke." She murmured, watching his gaze shift to curiosity.

"If...if you somehow fail at killing your brother, what would you do?"

She shouldn't have asked. Sasuke's expression immediately darkened. His grip on his chopsticks made her wary, because it looked like he was about to snap it.

Sara flushed, feeling like she had crossed a line. She just thought that Sasuke could understand her. He had a goal too, something he knew that was coming. He knew Itachi would come after him someday. So he's focusing all his efforts now into getting stronger to defeat him.

Her goal wasn't as extreme. But she knew what was coming too. And she also knew what she had to do. But she was scared of failure. She thought Sasuke would know what it was like to fear the hovering possibility of failing, even if you gave it your all.

"S-Sorry. I shouldn't have-"

"I won't fail." Sasuke said, his voice so low that she wouldn't have heard him if she didn't see his lips move. "I just need to make sure that there will be no way I would fail."

Sara frowned. It was an evasive answer, heavy on denial. There was always the possibility of failing. Something bad could always happen in the way of your plans, no matter how deep your planning was. This was what she was worried about. Not only did she fear her own ability to make it happen, she was also scared of the uncertain things that might happen.

She sighed and nodded at Sasuke, as if she understood. He continued staring at her, as if searching her face. She forced her face to remain neutral. She didn't want him to pick a fight with her, not now. She was sorry she brought it up.

"But." Sasuke suddenly said. Sara's eyes widened, startled. She thought for sure that he would finally give her his famous silent treatment, especially after crossing that red burning line. But Sasuke continued speaking, his eyes still on her face. "If...If I fail. If I...die because I couldn't kill him... then at least I know I dedicated my life doing it. I'd rather try and fail, than not try and let him get away with it."

Sasuke was lying. Sara knew it. He would never accept the scenario where Itachi would end up killing him. Sasuke would claw his way out of the grave if it meant ending Itachi.

But Sara also knew that he was just saying this because he probably felt her stressing out on something. It was nice of him to say the words he wasn't at all comfortable with, just because she saw his teammate suffering. It was totally uncharacteristic of him. But that only made him so much nicer for attempting to tell her comforting words.

Besides, his words made sense. It was a good principle to follow, even if the speaker himself didn't believe it.

Sara would try. And if she failed, then at least she was a true ninja, who tried her best to save living breathing people to the best of her ability. Oh she would try until her fingers bleed. She would try if it meant dying for a second time. But no matter what happens, at least she tried. She'd rather give it her all and fail, than sit back and let them die anyway.

She gave Sasuke her biggest smile, putting a hand on his shoulder and squeezing it softly.

"You're the best, Sasuke."

Sasuke froze at the contact, and his eyes widened at her expression. But Sara kept it there, wanting him to realize how much better she felt because of him. She tilted her head and gave him a wide toothy smile.

Sasuke's lips twitched, as if he wanted to smile back. But he only shrugged and continued eating, looking away from her, his ears turning a little red.

"Yes that's right Sara chan! Don't worry about anything! Our team is awesome, we'll get through anything!" Naruto declared, holding up his empty bowl with a foxy grin on his face. Of course, Naruto didn't really understand what was happening. But sunshine personified just couldn't help but spread love in a room.

Sara giggled and nudged him. "Please tell me that's your last one."

Naruto looked horrified. "No way!"

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"Ohh, my cute Tora chan." A considerably sizable lady in black elegant robes happily smooshed the cat to her face. The cat naturally started snarling and trying to pry itself away from the huge lady. "I was so worried about you!" That was Madam Shijimi, the wife of the fire country's feudal lord. And it was her cat, Tora, who kept needing to be rescued after numerous escapes.

It was their fourth time to finish this mission. This time, it was Kakashi who led them, as agreed upon previously. Kakashi amusedly joined their antics and acted like it was an A rank retrieval mission, much to their delight. He was strict and harsh, but he got the job done.

"That cat's getting what he deserves." Naruto mouthed to them, throwing dark looks at the struggling cat. "No wonder he keeps running away though."

The Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, the god of shinobi himself, sat at the desk, lazily staring down at their team. He was far from the battle-hardened shinobi that he was supposed to be. Today, he looked weary and bored, shuffling papers with well-kept distaste.

Weirdly, Iruka sensei was also there, surveying their group with a small smile.

The Hokage cleared his throat to get their attention. "Now then, Kakashi's 7th unit's next mission is...Baby sitting Yojyu- sama's boy. Grocey shopping at the neighbor's town. Helping dig up potatoes at-"

Naruto suddenly stomped his feet, shocking everyone in the room, except for Sara who looked at Naruto with a horrified expression. She knew what was coming.

"No!" Naruto screamed indignantly. "No thanks to all of those! I want to do a more exciting mission. Choose something else."

Sasuke nodded slightly with approval. Their D ranks were challenging, but he was ready to move on to something else.

Sara tried her best to not start shaking in front of everyone. Kakashi looked down at her.

"Everything alright, Sara chan?" He asked softly, curiously assessing the suddenly terrified girl.

Sara took a deep breath, but her eyes steeled and she straightened her shoulders. "Yes, sensei. I'm ready." And she meant it. She was ready to kick ass and meet death in the face again. She had a few more weeks to prepare after her conversation with Sasuke the last time. She bugged Sakura to help her read the impossible Cardiovascular system and the colossal damage a Chidori could cause. She studied hard and spent sleepless nights with Hinata as she practiced everything she learned and prepared some seals she might have to use. She knew that she was ready as she could ever be. And Sasuke was right, she would try her best. If she failed, then so be it.

Iruka frowned sternly at Naruto. "Idiot! You're still a novice ninja. Everyone needs to start with the easy missions to gain experience."

Sara smiled at that. Iruka was Naruto's father figure. It was a warming thing to remember that Naruto had asked the man to be his father at his wedding in the future. One of these days, she would give Iruka a big hug as thanks for being Naruto's life changing savior. But for now, they were both quarreling with each other.

Naruto scowled up at him. "But...but! Ojii san, I swear to you, we're ready! We've been doing really difficult missions ya know! We know we could handle a higher mission by now!"

The Hokage chuckled at that, his eyes twinkling with amusement.

Iruka blinked, confusedly turning to the Hokage. "What does he mean? Difficult missions? But weren't they just doing D rank missions?"

"Ah Iruka." Hiruzen wheezed, nodding fondly at team 7. "Take out Naruto to lunch once so he could tell you all about it. He's right though. Team 7 is definitely taking things up a notch, aren't they Kakashi?"

Kakashi nodded, eye smiling. "I'd say they're better than just brats by now."

So Kakashi did report every one of their antics after all. Sara looked up at him in surprise, but she was pleased that he did. They did exert a lot of effort on those.

"Hey!" Naruto protested. "We're the most awesome team this year! We could handle anything!"

That was another change, Sara supposed. Naruto was happy with their team dynamics. Maybe it was because unlike the canon team where Naruto was often shunned by both Sakura and Sasuke, Sara happily invited Naruto everywhere and she created team activities that would always include him.

They could also force Sasuke into these team activities, another surprising thing. All she needed now was a way to get Kakashi in it too and she'll have completely revolutionized team 7. It was a weird thought. But at least they were an active team, if nothing else.

"If you insist, I will allow you to take on a C rank mission. It's to escort a certain person." The Hokage casually told them.

Naruto immediately perked up in excitement, gratitude shining in his eyes as he stared at the Hokage.

"Really? Who? Who? The feudal Lord, or a princess?"

"Don't get so hasty. I'll introduce him now. Can you please come in now?"

Here it was, the moment everything will begin. Sara took a deep breath. She steeled her heart and readied herself for whatever would happen.

 _I'm ready. I'm ready._ She chanted firmly to herself, and a prayer of plea to the skies.

This was the mission that would finally flush all of her old-world values down the drain. This week, she would witness violence and smell death from the harshness of other people, not a natural death like her sickness.

But no matter, she was ready. So with a determined expression, she turned around to face their client.

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	9. Chapter 9 – Things needed to be done

Chapter 9 – The things I can do and the things I need to do (Wave Part 1)

Summary: She was just a sickly girl back home, living her short life to its fullest. She was supposed to die, but she woke up in an entirely new world as a completely different person in a baby's body.

 **A/N:**

 **1\. Hello! Thank you again for reading and liking the story!**

 **2\. I like Sara too. She's my first OC main character so it's really hard pushing her to different compromising situations.**

 **3\. And the reviewer was right in saying that she's only optimistically giddy about everything because she did have a higher appreciation of life and the world. She was previously sick and dying after all, and she was a super fan of the show. I'm really happy that someone noticed this development.**

 **4\. Thank you for pointing out that I should tag this as OC. It completely fled my mind. But thanks for reminding me. XD**

 **5\. I'm a little hesitant about ships for now because it's still too early to really tell. So let's just see where it goes.**

 **6\. I'm sorry that this one is such a long chapter! I just thought that I needed to give some detailed tactics and strategies from Sara, so noone would be too surprised about what she'll do during combat.**

 **7\. Enjoy reading and don't forget to comment please! Thank you again!**

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"You should really look into getting your own apartment soon." Hinata casually mentioned as she looked around, disapproval shining in her eyes. Sara whistled innocently beside her.

Sara and Hinata were currently kneeling by the locker room of Sara's orphanage. The room was filled with old rusty lockers piling up in columns and rows, with numbers and names labeled at the upper part of each. It was a small, tight, and crowded locker room because of the low number of children actually staying in the orphanage, and thus, less people using said lockers.

The girls were kneeling on the floor in front of three lockers with Sara's name and the numbers 15, 16 and 17 embedded on the top. As it was, Sara occupied 3 lockers to put all her ninja stuff and everyday things. She had to pay a small amount to occupy all three, otherwise, the caretakers would force her to throw away some things to fit her stuff in just one locker. And yet, even as she got herself three lockers, her things were still awfully cramped inside.

Sara had a big backpack lying open beside her, which she was currently filling with equipment, scrolls, and provisions she thought she would need for her C rank mission in the morning.

Hinata shook her head as she glanced at Sara's disorganized things with a frown. "You're not a child anymore Sara. You really shouldn't be staying here now. Do you still expect to be adopted?"

Sara laughed at that, amused at the thought. Children in her poor orphanage rarely get adopted anyway. Only 1 out of 20 kids actually find a new home and a family. The rest of them just grow up and move out. But that was besides the point. Even at 12 years old, she should have still been too young, so she should still be eligible as an adoptee. But because of her ninja graduation, she was officially considered an adult.

She could only imagine the horrifying thought of considering 12-year old children as adults in her old world. It would be a total riot. But this world, on the other hand, really pushed ninja children to mature faster. So at 12, in an official genin team, she was legally an adult.

"The caretakers told me I could stay as long as I want." Sara explained, shrugging. "I don't have enough money yet to buy a place for myself. But I'm betting after this mission, I might be able to get one." _Because it will turn into an A rank mission after Tazuna gets attacked by Chuunin ranked and Jounin ranked ninjas._ Sara thought bemusedly, shaking her head to push away the unnerving thought. But she frowned, chewing on her bottom lip uneasily. _Then again, the Wave is still poor. Maybe they can't pay us properly even after all that. I hope Hokage sama will have mercy on us and shoulder our supposed pay._

Hinata's brows raised at that, blinking confusedly at her. "This C rank mission? I doubt it will pay enough for a new place." Hinata sighed, eyeing Sara's opened lockers and the squashed things inside. "You're a ninja now Sara. You make original seals. You have dangerous and sharp weapons in there. I just don't think it's safe for you and for the kids around you to have these things lying out in the open."

Sara gasped at that, putting a hand on her chest in mock offense. "They don't lie in the open! I have security seals around my lockers!"

Hinata's lips pursed as she tried to give Sara a stern look. Of course, the light blush on Hinata's face betrayed her increased effort to look strict instead of giving in to her friend's whims like always. "I'm just worried Sara. Besides, I don't think it's fitting for you now. I wish I could convince father to just let you room with me."

"Oh your father will have a heart attack if you ask." Sara chuckled, imagining Hiashi's expression if Hinata would ever make such a bold demand. Despite the Hyuga clan's apparent acceptance of her as their heir's companion, she knew that she was still on rocky grounds and was under constant observation by the older peers of the clan. Hinata had already been kidnapped before. And Sara's invisible civilian status only made them wary, despite the number of years that she had been loyal to Hinata as the girl's best friend.

Hinata actually rolled her eyes. "They all overact. I don't know how many times I have to tell them that you're not planning to scoop out my eyes when I'm unaware."

Sara flinched at the image in her head. "Okay. Not a nice thought. But it was nice of you to consider. Knowing how much of a slob I am, you're a saint for considering rooming with me."

Hinata just gave her a sweet smile. "You will learn how to be completely organized within a week of staying with me."

Sara visibly scooted away from Hinata, throwing her a wide-eyed look of mock fear. Hinata giggled and hit Sara's shoulders lightly. "You're the only girl in your team you know. You have to learn how to clean up."

Sara pouted and shook her head stubbornly. "That's sexist! If I'm cleaning, then the boys will clean with me. Noone gets to freeload!"

Hinata raised her hands in surrender, throwing her an exasperated look. "Okay okay. Whatever you say. Maybe Kakashi sensei could clean up after you and the boys."

An image of Kakashi with a broom and wearing an apron flashed in Sara's heads, making her gasp and snicker. Hinata giggled beside her, probably imagining the same thing.

Bad ass, 6th Hokage, ultimately awesome ninja and the head of Team 7, named Team Kakashi later on, cleaning up after his rowdy team of brats. Nope, it's an extravagantly bizarre thought.

Sara sighed as she nodded in defeat at Hinata. Sara knew that she should at least learn how to clean up after herself. So she sulkily pulled out the clothes she already squeezed into her bag to attempt to fold them properly.

On Hinata's end, she was happy that Sara was finally taking cleaning up seriously. Sara always wanted to focus on what she deemed to be more important things. For Hinata, cleanliness and orderliness were also vital things. It made it easier to look for things and to quickly pull out important things at urgent times if the cleaning was done properly. So Hinata beamed at Sara for at least fixing her packing. She raised her hand for a high 5, but Sara broodingly stuck her tongue out and turned away. Hinata pressed a hand to her own mouth, her muffled laughter soft and sweet.

After trying to fold her clothes well, Sara pulled out the rest of her stuff from her bag to rearrange them.

Hinata eyed what Sara packed curiously. She reached over and took the stack of papers with drawings of the same seal in each of them.

"Ohhhh what seal is this now?" Hinata inquired, tracing the lines of the seal with curiosity. "It looks like you really worked hard on this. Look at the number of papers you drew this on."

Sara peeked at what Hinata was holding and gave her friend a mischievous smirk. "Paralysis seal. It paralyzes whoever touches it after I activate it."

Hinata's mouth rounded into a small O. "Okay, but you drew a lot of them. Are you going to attempt to paralyze an army?"

"Ah no, I was just trying to master the form completely." Sara answered, excitement gleaming from her eyes. Hinata smiled at that. Sara loved discovering new things from her sealing. "You know how if you do a summoning jutsu, you just slam your fist on the ground and the summoning seal appears?"

As usual, Hinata had no idea what Sara was talking about. But she nodded anyway. "Hm?" She said, urging Sara to go on as the latter literally shivered in enthusiasm.

"Well, I found a way to do that. Slam your hand on any surface and a seal would appear. I figured that a person could perfectly manifest a summoning seal because of their blood contract with the summons, who has mastery over the summoning seal. They know it like the back of their hand." Sara explained, her hands waving in front of her as she talked. "But if you don't have your summon's mastery, then you gotta master the seal yourself. Memorize each line, each symbol, and each shade of the seal. Perfectly imagine the correct spaces. Visualize it into perfection and will that visualization into the surface or the ground that you're applying it on!"

Sara took a deep breath. "But mastering the seal is not enough of course. You need to have an intimate connection with the surface you will use it on. Like, if I want to place a seal on someone else's body, then I need to have a way to interact with that other person's chakra to place a seal on him or her. If I want to place one on the ground, then I also need to interact with its chakra-"

Hinata placed a hand on Sara's back and patted it gently. "Okay, breath child." She teased, chuckling at her hyper friend. "And also, interacting with the ground's chakra? Doesn't it mean nature chakra?"

Sara's head bobbed quickly. "Precisely! Nature chakra!"

Hinata frowned, staring at her friend in bewilderment. "But...uhmmm...you don't have nature chakra. Did you sign a summoning contract secretly and somehow became a sage?"

Sara slammed her hands down to her lap, looking exasperated. "No no. I told you. We don't need summoning contracts for this!" Hinata sighed, but only shook her head amusedly. Her friend really was a genius. It was hard to keep up at times but she loved Sara's passion and determination. Besides, Sara was always coming up with the most interesting things. Hinata fiddled with the weights on her wrists unconsciously.

"What we need...!" Sara continued, pulling up her sleeves on an arm. "Is this!" Sara bared her left arm to Hinata and excitedly nudged it towards her friend.

Hinata blinked as she stared in surprise at Sara's arm. She was looking at an intricate tattoo. It looked like a seal. It had swirls and elemental and symbolic balances that Sara always declared as important factors in making functioning seals. The way the lines curved though made it look like a small tree with swirling roots.

"You...! You got a tat!" Hinata gasped, her eyes widening in alarm. She was concerned that Sara would seal herself with something so permanent.

But Sara just grinned widely. "This is a nature blending seal. It allows me to connect to nature chakra, but only enough to use its surface. I can't actually use nature chakra with this seal. But it allows me to utilize the surface. Watch this!"

Sara's face scrunched in concentration, then she slammed her palm to the ground. "Paralysis seal!" She yelled, leaping back after touching the ground. Then almost immediately, the same seal that was drawn in the dozens of papers that Hinata clutched appeared on the spot Sara slammed on. The seal was a thick dark red. Hinata looked at the papers, then on that spot on the ground. It was really the same seal, copied perfectly.

"Mmmm well since I'm doing this on my own, I had to use my own ink..." Sara mumbled sheepishly, scratching her head.

Hinata gaped at it. "Your blood. You used your blood."

Sara shrugged. "Yeah, no other way to do it. Besides, it looks pretty cool like that."

"Is...is it working?" Hinata asked with morbid curiosity as she inched closer to the seal.

Sara smirked at her. "Well step on it and you'll see. If you freeze, then it's working."

Hinata immediately stepped away, making Sara chuckle.

Hinata shook her head in awe. "Wow Sara, you just figured out a way to use seals on any surface!"

"Well I can't use it in the wind. Like I can't raise my hands and make seals appear in the air. There's nature chakra there too but I'd need to devise a more complicated blending seal for that. I could probably use it on water the same way we can stand on water if we control our chakra enough, but I still need to experiment on that." Sara said in thought, obviously making theories again that Hinata was sure she'd test as soon as possible.

Hinata lifted a finger to touch Sara's tattoo, sliding on the lines hesitantly. "Why did you need to tattoo this on your skin. Can't you just stick another paper seal on yourself whenever you need to use a seal on surface? You know, like you do with your chakra storage seals?"

Sara lifted her shoulders helplessly. "Well I could do that. But I suspect that I'll be using this form of sealing more often. It would be a waste of time if I have to put a paper seal on me everytime I have to do it. So I just tattoed the blending seal on me." She paused thoughtfully. "Although it's true that I really need to master the seal I want to put on a surface. If I get one detail wrong, and if I don't concentrate hard enough to visualize it into the surface, then it's just not gonna work."

Hinata nodded, knowing that Sara was probably on the process of mastering all her seals so she could slam all of it on a surface anytime she wanted to.

Sara blinked and turned back to Hinata, smiling widely. "Anyway, so I got that paralysis seal down. It's bloody red though because it's drawn with my blood, so if the enemy is extra focused, he would see it and avoid it." Sara pouted at that. Hinata laughed. "Oh well. Better try to blend it in the surroundings."

Hinata casually flipped the pages of the paralysis seal sketches. She paused as she came across a second batch of papers with a different seal. This one looked more complicated. It was a mass of lines and shades that swirled around a figure that looked like a blurry human form.

She lifted it up for Sara to see. "Uhmmmm..."

Sara perked up when she saw it. She carefully took one of the papers that contained the sketch from Hinata delicately, as if it was glass.

"This one is a protection seal."

Hinata let out a little laugh. "You really should be more creative when you name your seals."

Sara stuck her tongue out. "Well I just don't have the knack for it! I bet if I ever get a kid someday, I'll name it 'baby' because it's a baby when I first saw it."

Hinata giggled. "Oh no. I can see you actually doing that. Poor Neji niisan."

Sara squeaked in protest, glaring at her. "Are you still pairing me up with your cousin? Stop that! He doesn't even know me!"

Hinata smiled at her innocently. "Oh he knows you. I think he's aware that it's your fault he got more fans. He just has not seen you yet. Besides, if you marry him, you'll be a Hyuga! We'll be family!"

Sara grimaced at her. "Oh no you don't! You're not baiting me on him and make me pull that stick out of his ass."

"But he hates me Sara!" Hinata groaned, looking up at the ceiling. "Seriously. He looks at me like he wants to kill me. I thought maybe if he falls for you, he could be a little happier? Besides, he can't hate me if he loves you. We're best friends so he'll just have to deal with me if he wants to keep you. "

Sara gaped at Hinata and blinked at her. "Damn, you really put a lot of thought into that! Aw Hina chan, I really can't perform that miracle. If he can resist your cuteness, there's no way I can seduce him."

Hinata sighed. "Just a thought. It's because I'm weak you know, that's why he hates me."

Sara immediately squawked in protest. But Hinata cut her off, raising a hand and shaking her head quickly, not really wanting to talk about it. Hinata knew that Sara would always stick with her and battle anyone who would attempt to hurt her. Sara was the most awesome friend in the world. To be honest, she was already family. She was even closer to her than most of her actual relatives. And Hinata promised that someday, she would talk about the heartaches of being the clan heiress with her. But not right now. This was a battle that Hinata wanted to fight herself. She knew that telling Sara would mean setting the fierce girl against her hurtful family. Maybe she'll ask for help in the future, but for now, it's a war that Hinata wanted to bravely fight on her own.

She would fight like Naruto fought against the whole village who hated him. She would fight like Sara fought to become the best even if she was born ordinary. If they could do it, she could do it too. Hinata would just have to steel herself against her murderous cousin for a while longer.

Hinata cleared her throat. "So anyway, tell me about this protection steal."

It wasn't a smooth change of topic, so Sara stared at her, gauging her emotions. It was clear that Sara really wanted to talk about it. But looking into her eyes, she must have sensed Hinata's silent plea to let it go.

So Sara sighed exasperatedly and frowned discontentedly. Hinata forced a beam at her friend and waved a cheerful hand in front of Sara's face.

"Hello? Protection seal?"

Sara rolled her eyes. "Alright alright." She lifted the paper where she sketched the seal. "Protection seal. This one took me 6 years to develop."

Hinata's mouth dropped wide open, her eyes going round. "6...6 years?! You started making this on your first year at the academy?!"

Sara shrugged. "Well, I think it's an important seal as a ninja. I just finished this a few months ago. Now I'm trying to master it so I could just touch my client and cast it immediately."

"Ohhhh. Well, this should be useful for you in this mission. You said this is an escort mission, yes?" Hinata asked, nodding at the seal. "So how does this work?"

Sara traced the lines of the seal and pointed at a bracket symbol. "Shield. Absolute shield. Nothing and no one can touch you when this seal is activated on your skin. You can't use it on yourself though. You can only cast it on another person. And only on one person too. So that means putting a shield on someone else."

Hinata frowned, staring at the seal with raised brows. "Is that even possible?"

Sara's finger moved to the spirit symbol. "Sure. But it has a huge drawback on the caster. See, the seal caster creates the shield using his own life force. It becomes impenetrable because the life force is transferred to another body that it is not tied to." She pointed at a container symbol. "You can only cut or harm a life force along with its inherent physical embodiment. So as long as the life force is away from its actual body, it's invincible. Wrap it around the person you want to protect and that person will be untouchable. But!" She pointed outside the symbol at an empty space and tapped it impatiently. "This leaves the actual body of the caster without its life force. The moment I cast the seal to another person, I'll have to purge chakra forcefully around my body, 10 times harder on my systems to keep it functioning. It'll be my sustenance while my body is essentially a moving corpse."

Hinata gasped in shock. "You mean, technically, as soon as you perform the seal, you die. Because you transfer your life to another person as a shield."

"Yup." Sara answered nonchalantly.

Hinata clasped her hands on Sara's shoulders and gripped tightly. She shook her friend. "Are you out of your mind? Why would you cast a seal that kills you?"

Sara waved her hand dismissively, shaking her head. "I won't be dead. As long as I keep my chakra running to keep my organs functioning, I'll be fine. But...if I lose my chakra..."

Hinata blanched. "You die for real. You need a large amount of chakra and you have to keep it that way, or your systems will falter."

Sara nodded solemnly. "Yes. And the shield will disappear if I die. The life force is impenetrable without its body, but it also can't exist without it. If the body dies, the life force will die as well. The...cast-ee? Will be without a shield."

Hinata let out a shaky breath. "That's a really dangerous seal."

"Yeah." Sara said, frustration creeping in her voice. "Even after 6 years, I still couldn't find a way around that. It will work best if no one will target me when I cast the seal. I'll be weaker at that time because I'm focusing all my chakra into purging around my body."

Hinata frowned, her mouth set in a hard line. "I don't know, it sounds like a risky seal. You protect your client completely, but it also leaves you completely vulnerable. I don't like it."

Sara shrugged. "We'll see." On Sara's part, she knew it would work because if she was playing Sakura's role in the Wave mission, then she will only stand and gape at everyone and she would go home without a scratch. Of course, despite attempting to manipulate the timeline to be as it was, Sara really wanted to use these seals and practice her combat. And definitely, she also had her personal mission to save lives.

Hinata shuddered, glaring at the offensively life endangering seal. "So if you drew it a dozen times too, you can also apply it in any surface?"

Sara nodded, grabbing Hinata's wrist suddenly. There was a flash of light, and the next moment, Hinata was staring at a red seal engraved on her wrist.

"Uhmmmm..." Hinata stammered, panicking slightly. She looked up at her friend quickly, activating her Byakugan and looking down at her friend's form.

Sara was right. She really did purge her chakra like a tsunami inside her body. It was fast and very robust, forcefully pushing each system to properly work. It looked like all of Sara's systems and body networks went on pause, and her chakra was forcing it to move again unnaturally. In Hinata's eyes, Sara's body was dark, without the light of someone who was alive. Looking down at her own body, she could see that she was surrounded by a soft white light. It looked like she was glowing.

"So...if someone stabs me with kunai right now?"

Sara smiled, although Hinata could see that it was a little strained. She was probably focusing hard on keeping herself alive. "It would be deflected. You're protected as long as I keep myself alive."

Hinata lifted her sealed wrist and shook it at Sara. "Take it off now. You're straining yourself!"

Sara weakly grabbed her wrist again. In another flash, the seal was gone.

Suddenly, Sara slumped forward and fell face first to the floor.

Hinata yelped and quickly caught her friend.

Sara smiled sheepishly. "Well...I'll have to work on that. It's all practice."

Hinata scowled and shoved Sara off her lap. "That wasn't good at all! Try not to use that seal if you don't have to!"

Sara merely smirked mischievously at her best friend. "We'll see."

Hinata frowned at Sara and firmly shook her head. "Sara. No! Seriously!"

Hinata looked like she was about to go into a round of vicious scolding, her face contorting to an unusual glower that usually frightened Sara. Hinata could go unnaturally brutal when it concerned her safety. So it never failed to shock Sara.

Sara immediately shoved another sketch of a seal to Hinata, wishing it was enough to distract her outraged friend.

Hinata eyed it stonily, her scowl still not fading away. "I hope..." She was seething. Sara flinched at that. "...that this isn't another suicidal seal!"

Sara quickly shook her head, raising her palms up in defense. "No no! Those are clearing seals!"

Hinata raised a brow. "Clearing...seals?"

Sara shrugged helplessly. "Sorry. I'm still not good with names." She cleared her throat awkwardly. "This one's supposed to clear the mist in your vision."

Hinata's face softened. It sounded like the seal was perfectly harmless so her intrigued look reappeared. She surveyed the seal with renewed interest. "In your vision? So the mist will not go away, but the one casted with this seal will see through the mist." Hinata curiously lifted two papers that had almost identical seals, but there was a slight difference to it. She lifted it up with a questioning gaze.

Sara held the papers. "This one sees through normal mist." Sara tapped one of the papers. Then she pointed at the other one. "This one sees through chakra induced mist."

Hinata tilted her head, her brows furrowed. "Why the distinction?"

Sara shrugged. "Hunch?" She explained lamely. Sometimes, Sara couldn't help but be less wary around Hinata. She was sure Hinata would be getting suspicious soon. But she loved her friend dearly and she just couldn't take building walls between them.

Hinata sighed, knowing that she wouldn't be able to get around her friend when she was making excuses. So she just lifted the last seal she saw. "How about this one?"

"Chakra band aid." Sara waved her hand proudly. "When you're chakra exhausted, it would supplement you a little more so you will have an extension of consciousness before you pass out from it. We'll have time to move to a safer hideout or take you to a doctor."

Hinata nodded, looking at the seal with approval. "Useful." A loose string with a seal wrapped around its center caught her eye. She picked it up. The ends of the strings were attached to 2 kunai.

"Oh, that's just a trap. It can be used in the heat of battle. Throw it down on opposite ends, and if the opponent trips on it, he explodes." Sara explained. "I devised it in a way where the one who will trip on it will be the only one to detonate. It's an in-body explosion."

Hinata dropped the string and kicked it away. Sara giggled.

"Relax. It's not activated." She took the papers from Hinata's arms and carefully placed them inside her bulgy backpack. "Now, are you done exploring with my stuff?"

Hinata beamed at her. "It's always an adventure snooping through your seals. I wish I knew how to write seals too."

Sara rolled her eyes. "Well I wish I knew how to do gentle fist!"

"You copied it the first time you saw it!" Hinata exclaimed, pouting at her. She was so cutesy that Sara immediately reached over to pinch her cheeks. Hinata's pout morphed into a small scowl.

"Princess, I could only push my chakra in the tenketsu point. But I couldn't do what you Hyuga people do. I can't manipulate the chakra network of another person to stop flowing or to increase its flow just by hitting the tenketsu. I'd still need the Byakugan to do that correctly. I know where the tenketsu is but I can't see what happens in the body so I can't inject the chakra however I want." Sara explained, molding her best friend's cheeks contentedly.

Hinata weakly tried to tackle her hands away, to no avail. "Yes yes. My eyes are awesome. Thank you very much. Oh get off!" Sara only giggled, poking her friend's nose and eyes. "Sara!"

Hinata jumped to her feet, pushing Sara's face away and blocking the tenketsu on her hands. Sara laughed loudly, wagging a weak finger.

"Well my mission is accomplished." Hinata said, glaring down at Sara without real malice. "I got you to fix your packing."

Hinata winked at her and started walking away. Sara let out one swift whistle, and suddenly Hinata's direction curved and she walked right into a locker.

Hinata yelped in pain, clutching her head as she fell hard on her ass. She turned to Sara and glared ferociously. "Did you...use your...annoying genjutsu...on me again?" Her voice was merely a whisper, but it was dangerously low.

Sara chuckled, raising her palms and sliding away quickly. "I was practicing! I'm sorry!"

Hinata rubbed her head, wincing as she threw an annoyed look at Sara. "To be fair, I didn't even hear the whistle anymore. In my head, I'm just walking and I suddenly bumped into that damned locker. You did whistle again, right?"

Sara nodded happily. "Yeah, remember, I was whistling earlier to infiltrate your senses, let my whistle blend into the background of your mental environment. So the next time I whistled, you won't hear it anymore. I made your head believe that you should turn right."

Hinata frowned at her. "Stop doing that. I'll hit the tenketsu on your throat!"

Sara slid away and laughed freely. "So violent! I'm a good influence on you!"

Hinata just shook her head and pushed herself up, throwing a warning glare at her friend. "I better not see you in the n-next week! Go d-disappear in your mission!"

Sara knew Hinata hesitated because no matter what she did, Hinata would definitely be awaiting her return every day. Her friend was just a sweetie pie like that.

So Sara also stood up and shoved her offensively heavy bag up her shoulders. "Yeah yeah. I know you'll miss me."

She was all packed up now. She spent so many weeks making sure she would come prepared. To be honest, she was well aware that if she did absolutely nothing in this mission, she will still be fine. After all, she was in pre Shippuden Sakura's shoes. She literally stood by the sides the whole time and she was fine. Aside from the medical tragedy that Sara was planning to do at the end of the mission, Sara supposed that she could chill.

Not.

She spent all her life in this world shaping herself up. Sara was really excited. It was her first high rank mission! So it's definitely time for an adventure!

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"Alright! Let's go let's go let's go!" Naruto declared, his eyes sparkling in excitement as he eyed the village gates.

Sara was shuffling beside him animatedly. She pumped a fist above her head and yelled loudly in the crisp morning air. "Yes, let's go!"

Kakashi chuckled, putting a hand on both of their heads and ruffling their hairs. "Well aren't you two just excited."

Sasuke sighed and turned away from them, standing a little further from the group. Tazuna eyed Sara and Naruto with a dubious frown.

"Will these kids really be capable of this mission?" He asked, doubt flashing in his eyes as he regarded them.

"Oh, I'm sorry Tazuna san!" Sara politely responded, facing the older man. In the flesh, Tazuna was really just a grey-haired, bespectacled man with a large beard and dark eyes. It was a little hard to believe that he really would be the client who requested the mission that would become team 7's first turning point. Tazuna, the famed bridge builder of the Wave arc, simply looked like the usual civilian hard at work. He wore a sleeveless V-neck shirt with an obi, pants and a pair of sandals. He carried a towel around his neck and wore a pointed hat on his head.

Sara tilted her head and smiled charmingly. "It's just that I have never been outside of the village before. So it's really exciting for me."

Tazuna's scowl softened, blinking up at her with wide eyes behind his glasses. "O-oh. Is that so? Well, I guess...it should be...fine then?"

 _What an adorable girl._ Tazuna thought to himself, swallowing his guilt as he watched her beam at him and giggle in delight. _Why are they sending such a small sweet girl in this mission?_ Tazuna knew that he was a prime target for a powerful individual. He couldn't imagine putting this little girl in front of him while strong ninjas attacked them.

Naruto turned towards Sara and held her hands. "You too Sara chan? I've never gone outside of the village too!"

Sara squealed, shooting forwards and inching towards the gate dramatically. She held her breath before slowly pushing her toes across the line of the gate. When both her feet were officially outside, she leaped in victory. She pulled Naruto along and they both started jumping around and surveying the 'outside world'.

Kakashi looked at them with amusement. Sara and Naruto were both orphans who never had any reason to go outside of the village. Sasuke, on the other hand, was tagged along in official family businesses or events outside of the village before so he wasn't as thrilled.

So Sasuke just shook his head before following them out, catching them by pressing a hand on their shoulders and pushing down heavily to force them to stop moving. Sara and Naruto both scowled at him.

"TEME-"

"TSK SASUKE KUN-"

Sasuke's brows furrowed, glaring at the two. "Idiots. Behave yourselves."

The hyper kids yelped in protest, tackling Sasuke in an effort to make him let go of them. Sasuke just gripped them harder, a vein ticking on his temple.

Tazuna started to look really worried. _They're just kids!_

Kakashi smiled reassuringly at the older man. "Ahh don't worry. Their team dynamics are usually pretty good. Sasuke's just not a morning person."

It was a lie of course. Sasuke had made it a habit to wake up extra early so he could have the usual morning trainings with Sara and Naruto. It was just that the racket that his 2 other teammates were causing as of the moment would pretty much annoy anyone within their range.

Sara looked up at Tazuna and grinned. "Kakashi sensei is really amazing Tazuna san! He's a seasoned Jounin! With him around, you never need to worry!"

Naruto shot a look of disbelief on Kakashi, looking at the man up and down. Naruto made a face. "You're such a fangirl of sensei, Sara chan." Naruto muttered, obviously judging his sensei negatively. After all, Kakashi hanged around them with his orange book, doing nothing else but giggle in a disturbing manner every now and then, probably at the perverted scenes on that dirty novel.

"But he really is!" Sara protested, pouting at her blond friend. "Right sensei?! You are the most amazing-est, super-est, brilliant-est Jounin ever!"

Kakashi smirked at that and shook his head. No matter how dismissive and silly Kakashi made himself out to be in front of the kids, Sara would always look up at him with awe and wonder in her eyes. She must have done some research then if she knew exactly what he was capable of.

But he bowed his head in a pretend show of humility anyway. "Mah Sara chan, your superlatives don't even exist. But I'll take those as compliments and give you my thanks." Sara grinned and winked at him, then leaned down to attempt to bite Sasuke's hand off her shoulder. Sasuke stepped on her foot and shoved her face away. Sara yelped in protest.

Kakashi turned to Tazuna. "She's right though, I'm a Jounin and I should be capable to protect you in this journey."

"You should be honored Tazuna san!" Sara piped up. "THE Hatake Kakashi is guarding you. You should be paying ten times more for just having him here!"

On Sara's part, she remembered that Kishimoto, the great creator of Naruto, mentioned that one of the main reasons of the Wave arc was to showcase Kakashi as an extremely badass ninja. It was totally true anyway. Itachi was still her ultimately favorite character but Kakashi was not far off. While being in team 7 totally terrified her, she was still thrilled to no end that Kakashi would actually be her sensei.

Although she knew that Kakashi wouldn't actually focus on her though, not with Sasuke _and_ Naruto in her team. But she was still pretty happy. That, and she knew what Kakashi actually looked like without his mask. She could just see it. That beauty mark and that handsome perfection. Yeah, she was a fangirl and she would totally embrace it. So she would gladly oblige Kishi on this.

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Okay that's it. Sasuke let's take this fangirl down."

Surprisingly, Sasuke actually cooperated with Naruto to turn on Sara and tackle her to the ground. Sara yelped and started kicking playfully, laughing as she batted her teammates' light punches on her.

Tazuna started to look horrified. _Children. They're children._ Kakashi looked at Tazuna curiously, wondering why the man was so terrified. The kids were still ninja after all, despite their young ages. They were skilled and talented enough to defend against rogues and bandits on the road. Something must be up.

Sara, on the other hand, finally kicked her teammates away, sticking her tongue out and wagging a finger. "Can't catch me doofuses!" She declared, winking at a resigned Sasuke and smirking victoriously at a beaten-up Naruto.

"Are we going or are we staying here all day?" Sasuke asked grumpily, dusting off his shirt and imparting a pointed look at the team. He turned his back on them and walked away on his own. Sara flanked him and tugged at his shirt, whispering about morning drills and how they just did one with Naruto during the tackle fight. Sasuke stared at her incredulously and just shook his head in disbelief. But he didn't shake her away.

Kakashi sighed at that. "Team, the client is still here. You shouldn't walk forward without him!"

Sara looked back and gave him a lopsided grin. "But sensei, Me and Sasuke will be guarding the front! Naruto will be in the middle, looking sideways! You can be at the very back to guard Tazuna san from behind!"

Kakashi raised his brows. "You are tasking _Naruto_ to guard the sides?"

Sara nodded quickly and glanced at Naruto with an expression of complete trust. Naruto blinked at her, his eyes widening.

"You are definitely up for that, right?" Sara asked, her tone suggesting that she wasn't really asking because she already knew the answer. Naruto puffed his chest out and gave her a thumbs up.

"Of course Sara chan! Leave it to me!" He stated proudly, his smile shining blindingly.

Kakashi just regarded them with amusement. It wasn't the best formation. He was pretty sure that Sara just wanted to bug Sasuke in front and Naruto would more likely be focused on excitedly surveying the surroundings like a tourist. But it was a low rank mission and they were still pretty scattered strategically when it came down to it, so Kakashi let it go and allowed the children their fun.

Tazuna shot him a look. "Aren't you the jounin? Did you just let that little girl arrange this mess of a line?"

 _It does look like a mess doesn't it?_ Kakashi chuckled inwardly. But Kakashi just imparted a confident nod at their client. "Those kids are very smart. They know what they're doing."

Sara looked back at Tazuna and pouted her small lips. "Aw Tazuna san, don't be like that! You're in the middle of team 7's loving and harmonious circle! You'll be fine!"

Sasuke scoffed at that, now trying to tug away from Sara, who held on tightly to his shirt anyway with a mischievous smile. Naruto laughed happily in the middle, spinning around as he looked at the woods beside the road. Kakashi just smiled and kept walking behind Tazuna in a carefree stroll. Tazuna envisioned his impending death with a far-away look.

As they left the gates, a menacing pair of chakra flashed at the edges.

Sara forced herself not to react to that, even as she saw Kakashi glance towards the area from the corner of his eye. _They're here._ Sara thought, arranging her features to continue bickering with Sasuke innocently. _They started to follow us._

She pulled back from leaning towards Sasuke and subtly took a deep breath. Then she started whistling. She whistled to the tune of Fiona's song from Shrek 1. Sasuke glanced at her, probably because of another unfamiliar tune she came up with again. She just really liked her old world's music better. Naruto bounced on the balls of his feet to her whistling. Tazuna just stared at her curiously while Kakashi continued walking without a care in the world. Sara bet that he would have pulled out his pervy orange book if he was sure that it won't freak the client out.

 _Step 1, infiltrate the senses._ She thought to herself, working on mixing the right amount of chakra, converting it to its exact proper type and mixing it with her voice. Too much and the air would be suffocating, they'd notice it. Too little and it won't deliver the desired effect. Her primary goal was to cast a heavy genjutsu later on. But she didn't want anyone to know that she casted it through her whistling. So whistling now was merely to infiltrate the senses so the whistling later would be completely invisible. They'd be in the genjutsu before they even know it.

Currently, they should still be able to hear the whistling. The step 1 was about convincing the system that her chakra induced voice was merely a harmless lullaby. The goal of this was to infiltrate the network of those who can hear the whistle with the subject's voluntary willingness to let her. In short, she would infiltrate their senses and they would let her because they thought they were just listening to her lovely whistling.

But to do that, her lullaby must not only be soothing to the ears, the chakra she mixed with it should also come with the right amount of sweetness and taste, so as to be welcomed with open doors inside the subject's system.

It wasn't a well-known tactic, if it even existed in this world as of the moment. So she could get away with it as long as noone realized this particular skill. This was why she needed to infiltrate the senses in the first place. She could always just whistle away in the middle of a battle and cast the genjutsu on site. But then everyone would know that it was through her whistle that she managed to do that. And if they know how she did it, they would know that next time, all they needed to was cover their ears when facing her.

So the strategy was to trick the target into not wanting to cover his ears, or at least make him feel like he didn't have to. Disguise it as a harmless song and he would never know the better.

She even lulled everyone in her team into trusting her melodies. She conditioned them into thinking that she just liked singing and whistling. So now when she sang, nobody minded. This genjutsu would be her greatest magic trick when she started saving lives. In the future, she would even need to fool both Kakashi and Sasuke with it. So it was essential that they don't find out how she's casting her genjutsu.

She still needed to develop it though. And that's why she was risking its use in this mission. She needed practical application.

For now, she was hoping to run a test on it against the Demon Brothers.

She whistled innocently along the path, her braid swaying from her ponytail.

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They walked for a few hours quite leisurely. Naruto was still grinning widely as he replaced Sara's spot beside Sasuke so he could be the one that bothers Sasuke next. Sasuke looked at them exasperatedly, realizing that the two of them was set on irritating him today, while Sara and Naruto winked at each other.

Sara skipped to the middle to replace Naruto's position and chatted with Tazuna and Kakashi. Like in canon, Kakashi ended up explaining about the 5 hidden villages and their Kages. Sara knew that in the anime, Kakashi had to do this to explain the Narutoverse to the watchers. Now that she was here, it was a little weird that this wasn't taught in the Academy. The history of Konoha was a full subject in a semester, so was the geography of the elemental nations. But this kind of power structure should really be explained to students as well. Maybe the students were supposed to learn about this as they go to missions. Practical learning and all that.

"...Country of Fire's hidden village of Konoha (Leaf)." Kakashi was saying. "Country of Water's hidden village of Mist. Country of Lightning's hidden village of Cloud. Country of Wind's hidden village of Sand. Country of Earth's hidden village of Rock. Those are the 5 great hidden nations. Only the leader of each hidden village is allowed to carry the name of 'Kage'. Hokage, Mizukage, Raikage, Kazekage, and Tsuchikage, otherwise known as the five kages, are the ninjas that reign over the tens of thousands of ninjas that exist in the countries throughout the world."

Sara ooohed at that. "Wow, Yay to Hokage Sama! Ne ne, Naruto, when you become Hokage, I'll be your Anbu captain!" She paused, throwing a thoughtful look at Sasuke. "Hmmm or you can make me Jounin commander instead. Sasuke can be Anbu captain."

It wasn't true of course. Naruto will be Hokage and Sasuke would be some kind of special ninja assigned to an extremely long-term mission. Of course, she was hoping that she could get Sasuke to stay after she saved Itachi. But for now, she smiled at her teammates, reveling on a lovely vision of their future.

Naruto looked teary eyed as he regarded Sara with wide eyes and trembling lips. Sasuke found his chance to push Naruto away from him, but he had a small smirk on his face before he turned away and focused on the road again.

"R-really Sara chan? You think I'll be Hokage?" Naruto asked her in a small voice.

Sara raised her brows. "Of course! I can't imagine a future where you didn't become Hokage." And it was true. That would mean that Sara totally effed up the timeline if Naruto didn't become Hokage. She felt frightened as the unlikely scenario flooded her mind.

But maybe it was because she said this, or because she said _when_ and not _if_ when she talked about Naruto being Hokage, or maybe because she arranged her own dream to include Naruto's dream, but Naruto pounced on her and wrapped her in a bone crushing hug.

"Yes, I will totally become Hokage then I'll make you the Anbu captain _and_ the Jounin commander if you want to!" Naruto loudly exclaimed, spinning Sara around in his hug.

Sara laughed, patting Naruto's shoulder. "I can't be both of them you know! Leave something for Sasuke. It would be awesome if all three of us become great."

Naruto shrugged, throwing Sasuke a haughty look. "Only if he accepts that I'll be Hokage!"

"Hn." Sasuke replied dismissively. "Sure, why not? A country where Ramen becomes the national food." Sara knew that Sasuke meant it sarcastically. But there was no real malice in his voice. So Naruto beamed up at him and hopped back to his side.

"Oh alright then. If you insist. You could be Anbu captain."

Sasuke rolled his eyes.

Kakashi smiled down at them. Their team really had interesting dynamics. Naruto and Sasuke had an obvious rivalry. Although that was already strange since Naruto was obviously not on Sasuke's league yet. The fact that Sasuke responded to Naruto's challenges and even encouraged the rivalry was definitely a sight to see. There was Sara too. She was the most skilled out of the three. And this was just considering the things she willingly showed. Kakashi was sure she also had some secret arsenal up her sleeves. But none of the boys picked a fight with her the way they do with each other.

In fact, they followed her around. They listened to her. And they get influenced by her subtle quirks.

Whatever it was, Kakashi was glad. He always knew that he would get a weird team the moment the 2 boys were assigned to him. But with these developments, he was really hoping that he'll finally be in one that wouldn't be so destructive.

Soon, the team finally came across a wooden bridge. Sara forced herself not to tense up. She kept her braid swaying behind her and she widened her eyes as she looked around theatrically. They crossed the bridge without incident, with Naruto and Sasuke's bickering filling what could have been a heavy silence. Or at least it would have been heavy for her, because she knew what was coming.

She adapted an amused expression as she stared up ahead. Sara wasn't sure what to feel about this. She knew that she didn't really need to do anything. But she oh-so-wanted to.

She trained hard all her life here because she wanted to do these kinds of adventures. She was sickly in the past, so she never exerted more than a little jog. She was very excited to finally, _finally,_ put all her training to the test. This was live combat. Yeah, it was simple and she knew Kakashi would intervene in the end, but she wanted to be in the fight.

This was why being in team 7 really left a bitter taste in her mouth the first time it was announced. She would need to step back a lot just for some essential things to happen.

Like in this first combat with the Demon Brothers by the puddle, Naruto would develop his nindo, his promise to never go back on his words. He would be pushed to do that because Sasuke would totally show him up. He'd freeze while Sasuke moved without breaking a sweat. Which means that Sara needed to step back and let Sasuke be awesome before she could do anything. Later on when Zabuza arrives, Naruto would finally be pushed to be brave, and he would create a great strategy on his own to get Kakashi out of some water prison. Sara had to let this happen too because Naruto needed to know that he was capable of that kind of thinking. This would push him to use his head in the future. Sasuke needed to rely on Naruto more too, and by witnessing how Naruto created this idea on his own, he would be forced to acknowledge it. Sasuke and Naruto would also work together and they would learn that working together had its merits.

Sara, therefore, needed to go around these events. Which was a total hassle because she just wanted to go all out.

She grumbled inwardly as she thought about what she needed to do. Being in team 7 really was a hassle. But as she stared at Naruto's goofy grin and Sasuke's cross expression between a smirk and a scowl as he punched Naruto's arm away, then looking back and seeing Kakashi's peaceful demeanor, Sara knew that the hassle was worth it.

She imagined the framed picture of team 7 that was on her bedside back home. She had one arm around Naruto's waist, squeezing him to her, while her other arm was on Sasuke's shoulders. She was leaning her back on Kakashi, so the Jounin was essentially supporting all their weight because she pulled her teammates back with her. She was in mid laugh, her face frozen in a small giggle. Naruto was laughing beside her. Sasuke was looking blankly at the camera, but he didn't look like he was protesting against Sara's hold on him or Kakashi supporting their weights from behind. Kakashi looked like he was sighing, although he had a small smile on his face.

Sara knew that this team would totally explode after Chuunin exams. But for now, she loved this team dearly. She didn't regret being here now, even if it meant being smart with her actions all the time so as not to cause a drastic change that would lead to everyone dying.

Finally, they passed by the puddle.

Sara refrained from taking a deep breath, and just settled on her usual innocent I'm-totally-not-significant smile.

She was ready. And she was so going to kick ass.


	10. Chapter 10 – His will and her secrets

Chapter 10 – His will and her secrets (Wave part 2)

Summary: She was just a sickly girl back home, living her short life to its fullest. She was supposed to die, but she woke up in an entirely new world as a completely different person in a baby's body.

 **A/N:**

 **I think Hinata made an awesome friend for Sara. Getting them to be friends was an impulse on my part. 2 quiet girls together. And I think it fit nicely. They complement each other.**

 **I'm starting to organize exactly what Sara's skills are. There are the seals, melodic genjutsu, medic ninjutsu and she's good at combat overall. I'd say that her weakness would be straight out ninjutsu. She's dependent on seals and spends a lot of time doing that. I'd say that medic ninjutsu is also a weakness, but she's working really hard on that anyway. I'd lay these all out carefully as the story progresses.**

 **I'm not very creative on titles by the way! As evident on the story too. I made it seem like it was Sara who's not good at making labels. But in all honesty, I'm the one who's not good at it. But thank you for the suggestion of changing the title. I'll think about a good one. Hard. XD**

 **I haven't made enough build ups on any ship yet. And Sara didn't meet enough people to have options too. I say she's too young for that. And she's too fascinated with the world to really think about things like that as of the moment. I think it will just develop on its own. You can always put down suggestions in the future.**

 **Thank you so much for reading again!**

 **Please leave a comment, review, constructive criticism. I'll be happy to hear it out. Thanks again!**

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"Ne ne Sara chan, what's the story on that tune this time?" Naruto asked her as he matched his footsteps to Sara's whistling.

Naruto always asked a story behind her songs, like a kid eager to be told bed time stories. Sara didn't mind. She actually enjoyed telling or making up stories about them anyway. She remembered all the lovely stories in her past life and how her parents shared them with her, especially on her last days. As a matter of fact, the _Naruto_ series was even one of those stories. She remembered watching the show with them on her actual last day.

She knew Naruto had no one who shared stories with him. Vaguely, she wondered if Naruto even knew the children's bed time stories in this world, like The Very Hungry Ninken, Nighty Night little Shinobi, The Gama and the Hebi, or The Enchanted Kunai given that no one cared enough to tell them to him when he was younger.

So with a pang in her heart and a watery smile, she always lapped up on his eagerness and told him different stories, even on her songs.

" _This one is about an ogre, a kind of monster that everyone feared, named Shrek."_ Sara began in a singsong-y voice. They were approaching the puddle as they crossed the wooden bridge. So she was actually doing the Step 2 in her melodic genjutsu. Step 2, strengthen the chakra in the infiltrated senses of the target. Make sure that the whistling or the singing becomes portrayed as merely background. This was why she continued whistling the same tune since she left the gates, so the senses would get used to it and label it 'background'. And because she already started laying the genjutsu, she really can't stop the tune now, even to answer Naruto's question. So she continued the melody, singing her explanation to her teammate.

This might have come off as strange for any other person, but Sara had already conditioned people around her to accept that she just loved to sing, anywhere and anytime. So team 7 didn't bat an eye when she continued singing even as she spoke to Naruto. Tazuna threw her an amused look though.

" _People labeled him dangerous. And he was feared and hunted. But Shrek never actually harmed anybody. One day, he saved a princess named Fiona. This song is her song."_ She sang to Naruto, drifting from side to side in tiptoes, as if dancing across the ground. Naruto smiled at the story. Sara knew that it was probably because it was a little similar to his situation. People treated Naruto like a monster too.

But as much as she wanted to elaborate the story and give Naruto another moral lesson through it, Sara's focus was entirely on the puddle. The puddle was inconspicuous enough. It was just a small pool of water on the ground after all. But it wasn't just any insignificant puddle, it was the monumental puddle from Team 7's first C-turned-A rank mission. Sara consciously tampered down her growing restlessness.

They passed by beside it and she couldn't help but glance at it. Kakashi caught her looking and tilted his head, as if expecting her to comment on it. But she just smiled and shrugged.

Sara straightened up and continued her whistling, adopting a perfectly innocent smile. She kept walking, even though she really didn't want to turn her back on the puddle. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end, and she had the greatest urge to crouch to her battle position in defense. But she shouldn't. Not yet.

To be honest, the Demon brothers were seriously underestimating them. Even if she didn't know beforehand that they would be there, she would have sensed their presence anyway. Their chakra was not hidden all that well. The puddle reeked of their signatures. Any decent chakra sensor would have sensed them already. Of course, they must have been informed that Tazuna hired a mere genin team, and chakra sensing was another upper level skill so maybe they thought that little brats really shouldn't be able to detect them. It was just their bad luck that they were assigned to assassinate a man protected by the genin team that was led by Hatake Kakashi. And of course, another stroke of bad luck to them for attacking a team with a genin who knew the storyline of this world like the back of her hand. But Sara personally thought that it was neither here nor there.

As soon as all of them went past the puddle, the enemies finally decided to make their appearance. Sara felt 2 figures looming out slowly from behind them. She was a little bothered that Sasuke and Naruto couldn't sense it at all. They were still bickering in front, oblivious and relaxed, despite the building depth of their current argument. Even if chakra sensing was a little advanced, it still wouldn't do to get caught off guard. She knew that Kakashi could already sense it and had already prepared his substitution.

Sara held back a groan of disapproval. It really wouldn't do to be caught unaware like this after all. The figures weren't even trying that hard to conceal their chakra. Sara would definitely include chakra sensing in their morning trainings from now on.

Suddenly, the brothers flashed towards Kakashi's left and right, the sound of harsh metal clanking as they dragged a chain between them. The other members of their team turned around just in time to see the enemies twisting and spinning around Kakashi, wrapping the metal chains around him before anyone could even blink.

"What?!" Naruto shouted in surprise, freezing in his spot. He shook his head as he tried to process what was happening in front of them. For him, it was _flash, clank, wrap._ They were flashing to places with a speed that he couldn't even begin to comprehend.

Sara, on the other hand, narrowed her eyes in concentration as she followed their movements. The brothers moved fast, but she could follow their movement with ease, and for that she was glad. But she didn't see Kakashi perform the Kawarimi. He would have done it before the chains wrapped entirely on him. She cursed herself inwardly for still not being fast enough. She clicked her tongue in disappointment.

The Demon brothers stood menacingly before them. They wore loose black cloaks. One has a gas mask and a long shaggy hair. The other has a single huge horn above the metal of his hitai ate. Their large metal gauntlets were connected to each other by the chains that were currently squeezing the life out of their sensei, like a retractable shuriken-styled chain running between the two of them.

Sara crouched in preparation. She wanted to move _now_ but she knew that Sasuke had to make his move first to trigger the chain of events. It frustrated her, but it was what it was. She was completely focused though, her eyes quickly scanning the area of the battle, and subsequently crafting a plan and visualizing its execution.

She waited for fear to immobilize her, like it did to Naruto. Naruto was currently gaping at the scene with wide eyes, frozen and lightly shaking. She had plans of actions in case that happened to her too.

She expected to feel afraid. After all, this was her first real fight. This was live combat. And she never experienced anything like this even in her past life. She could be fighting to the death. But instead, she was entirely focused and her mind was already picturing the seals she would use.

Maybe it was because she was not afraid of death even now. Being in this world was very thrilling and exciting. But she already had proof that death was just the next great adventure. Maybe it was a long, continuous journey. And maybe the next experience wouldn't be as magical as this current one, but she certainly wasn't afraid to take the chance.

Or maybe it wasn't because of that at all. Maybe it was simply because she knew she wasn't going to die. Knowing the plotline could really be such a spoiler. Sara knew that her first real fear of dying in this world would probably come during her fight with Sasori in the future. Pre-Shippuden shouldn't give her much trouble. Not when she was in Sakura's shoes. Not even in Chuunin exams, where all the endangering trouble would revolve around Sasuke. Sure, there was a time when Sasuke and Naruto were unconscious and Sakura had to defend them on her own in the Forest of Death. But really, Lee came to help, and so did team 10. And Sasuke came just in time to save her. Sakura was always in situations of safety for herself. In her shoes, Sara could really only die if she somehow mucked up so bad that all the factors that saved Sakura somehow disappeared.

Of course, Sara would not accept being a wallflower in battles. She refused to sit pretty and wait for saviors. But in any case, she was aware that all of these factors would come into play if she _actually_ got in real trouble. So she wasn't worried.

Yet this perspective might be a good thing. As new as this experience was to her, she was eager to test the result of her years of hard work. She certainly wouldn't appreciate it if she froze like Naruto did. Now she understood why Naruto had felt so frustrated in the anime. She knew he also worked really hard. It must have been extremely frustrating to realize that even after all that work, it was still fruitless. Then braggarts like Sasuke still dominated the field.

If she actually froze, she'd probably make it dramatic too and make her own nindo with Naruto.

But as it was, she eyed the brothers almost neutrally. She wasn't afraid of what they could do to her. Or what they wouldn't be able to do since Kakashi would end up saving them anyway. _Damn spoilers._ Sara sighed inwardly.

But despite her neutrality regarding her own life in this world, ironically and hypocritically, she suddenly felt fear flooding her senses as the brothers moved to hurt her teammates.

"First one." One of the brothers exclaimed. They pulled the chains around Kakashi, ripping their sensei to shreds in front of them. Sara couldn't help her gasp of surprise, seeing Kakashi actually being ripped apart. Blood splattered all over and some of his insides spilled about on the ground. Sara almost froze in shock.

She wasn't really icky on blood and gore. After all, she, herself, vomited out blood and some of her insides on a regular basis when her sickness acted up in her past life. There was even a time when she bled from all the openings of her body. It was definitely quite a disgusting and terrifying time for her parents.

But of course, it was still greatly distressing to watch a person you know and came to care about get shredded. She felt her heart constrict at the mess and she stopped breathing as the smell of iron and rust flooded the area, the smell of blood. _Kakashi's blood._

Sara clenched her shaking hands into fists and forced herself to focus again, digging her nails into her palms painfully to bring herself back to the battle scene. In reality, Sara only took about 5 seconds to compose herself after Kakashi was torn into pieces. And it was a good thing, because the brothers were already moving towards them again.

"Kakashi sensei!" Naruto screamed in terror, his eyes also glued to the bloody scene before them.

Upon focusing, Sara felt the quiver of heavy chakra in the air. Her eyes widened as she realized that all that bloody mess was just a pretty strong genjutsu after all, something that Kakashi had casted to make everyone believe that he died. She scolded herself for not realizing it sooner and letting herself almost have a heart attack for it. She didn't have time to dispel it though. The enemies were coming. Sara painfully forced herself to tear her eyes away from the horror. She crouched in preparation, watching the brothers flash behind Naruto with narrowed eyes.

"Second one."

They whipped their chains up and moved to spin around Naruto, attempting to wrap him around it too. Naruto stayed frozen, looking up at them with his mouth gaping wide open.

Sara could move forward and pull him out of the way. But like her earlier dilemma, she must let things happen. So she waited, feeling Sasuke move from behind her towards the action. She shuffled helplessly, watching the avenger surge forward. _He should move faster._ She thought irritably, fidgeting in her place.

He jumped high up above them, and threw a single shuriken that pinned the chain to a tree. He threw another kunai and bulls-eyed the center of the shuriken, firmly attaching the chain to it.

The Demon brothers were focused on Sasuke's attack, so the moment Sasuke leapt, Sara quickly stepped behind Naruto and slammed her palm a few feet away from where he stood. The Paralysis seal appeared on that spot in deep blood red. She quickly activated it.

It was one of their practiced formations as a team. Sasuke would go high, she would sneak from below, and Naruto would attack from the sides. Sara threw a disappointed look at Naruto, seeing that the boy was still unmoving. Perhaps a sudden life and death action shocked him into immobility.

Then again, Naruto was bound to feel that shock. Sasuke already saw a lot of blood from his family's massacre. Sara saw her own blood painting the floor in many occasions.

So she supposed she shouldn't be too frustrated at Naruto. The village might have hated him a lot and they all isolated him, but he never knew blood and gore like this. Maybe if he remembered his parents getting stabbed by Kyuubi's claw in front of him, he would be more prepared. But he was just a baby at that time. Sara still hoped though, that at least their team routine would snap him out of it and get him moving. But he didn't.

The Demon brothers tried to move away to perform another course of attack. But they were pulled back by their gauntlet, which was attached to the chain that was pinned firmly to the tree. Sasuke swiftly landed on those, propelling himself backwards by pushing against the gauntlets and cleanly shoving the soles of his feet on their faces.

Kicking them pushed them backwards though, with enough force that their hands were freed from the gauntlets. Realizing this, the brothers immediately scattered and moved away. One of them headed straight towards Naruto. The other headed towards Tazuna.

At the same moment, Sara placed herself in front of Tazuna and grabbed his wrist behind her. There was a flash of light, making Tazuna gasp softly. But she ignored it and focused on the brother heading to Naruto. She whistled sharply, then suddenly, he sidestepped from his run and he stepped right into her Paralysis seal. He froze.

She averted her gaze to the brother heading towards her and Tazuna. She waited until he was a few feet away, then she threw one kunai on the attacker's left and another on his right, with an invisible string between them, attached to the blunt ends of the kunais, and an explosion seal wrapped on the center of the string. Just as the attacker was about to step on the string, Kakashi flashed before Sara's eyes.

One moment, the attacker would be setting off her trap. Then the next moment, Kakashi was there in all his glory, and he got the attacker in a chokehold.

He was so fast. And she couldn't follow at all. Sara frowned at that.

Kakashi chuckled at her expression. "Yo." He greeted casually, as if they weren't under an attack just seconds ago.

"Kakashi sensei." She mumbled, pouting now.

Kakashi tilted his head. "Ahh so I guess you figured out that I was alive. You don't look surprised. But you don't look too happy to see me."

Sara rubbed the back of her neck, looking down. "Well, it's because I couldn't catch up to you. You moved too fast."

Kakashi patted her head with his other hand. "Maa you just need to train more Sara chan. You're not far off after all."

Sara snorted at that. Kakashi was a _freaking genius prodigy._ Of course she was far off. She definitely needed to work harder.

"Oh and good job not freezing. You immediately jumped into combat."

She blinked at that. _Oh right, in this life, she should have been a perfectly sheltered civilian with no concept of blood and death._ She opted not to answer, smiling up at Kakashi in thanks to his praises. Kakashi didn't look too suspicious, but he looked like he was assessing her expression. Maybe he was checking if she went into shock. She had history of that in this world after all.

Avoiding his eyes and looking around, she spotted Sasuke with his arms crossed beside Naruto. Sara wondered why he didn't jump in front of her like he did with Sakura in cannon. She was fully prepared to throw the kunai around him too. She stared at Sasuke, who only stared back at her blankly. He had an oddly secured look about him. He glanced at the frozen brother a few feet away from them, with her seal written in blood under his feet. Then he looked back at her with the same expression.

Suddenly, it hit her. He didn't jump in because he trusted her to handle it. Sara wondered how this will affect the development of things. Maybe now, Sasuke would expect her to jump in more often. That would be troublesome later on when she would try to push Sasuke and Naruto to work together. Sasuke might insist on working with her instead.

Sara clicked her tongue, frustratedly at that possibility. But beneath it all, she was a little giddy that Sasuke trusted her and acknowledged her. He was still _the_ Uchiha Sasuke. And he let her fight her own battle.

Naruto, on the other hand, was gaping at the scattered wood that Kakashi substituted himself with. He was probably still stunned that Kakashi didn't die after all.

"Naruto." Kakashi called him. "Sorry for not helping out right away. I got you hurt. I didn't think you wouldn't be able to move."

Then he turned his head towards Sasuke. "And you Sasuke, good job. You quickly moved to disable the attackers' main weapons. It was quick and efficient. As expected of you."

Sasuke just shrugged, as if it was an everyday thing for him. Naruto scowled at him.

Kakashi looked at Sara. "And you Sara. You moved in front of Tazuna quickly, as per mission parameters. And you single handedly incapacitated both of the attackers. Well almost both of them. I have no doubt that this one..." Kakashi motioned to the attacker under his arm. "Would have blown himself up if I didn't stop him. Though I have to ask, he's a few feet away from you. If he blows up, the explosion would also blow you and Tazuna up, right?"

Sara quickly shook her head. "Oh no, sensei." She picked up the 2 kunai and deactivated the seal. The string appeared. Sara peeled off the seal wrapped around the center and showed it to Kakashi.

"See, it's designed to be an in-body explosion. Think of it as your organs and all other fun things in there exploding just inside your body." Kakashi's eyes widened at that. Naruto made a face behind them, swallowing hard at the imagery, while Sasuke blinked in curiosity.

"Hmm." Kakashi eyed the seal she was holding up. Then his eyes went to the seal that the other frozen attacker was standing on.

"Ahh little girl." Tazuna said, tapping Sara on the shoulder. "What about this one you put on my wrist?" He held out his wrist, showing the protection seal that Sara casted on him when she grabbed it.

"Oh, right!" Sara exclaimed. She grabbed Tazuna's wrist again, then with a flash of light, it disappeared.

Suddenly, Sara dropped to her knees. "Ooof!" Sara yelped, her eyes rolling back.

"Sara chan!" Naruto rushed towards her. He made to pick her up, but she waved a hand away.

"N-No, I'm fine. Just...the rush of...it's just overwhelming." Sara mumbled, breathing hard. She wiped the sweat that formed instantaneously on her forehead and stood up shakily.

Sasuke was beside her now too, he gripped her elbows and helped her steady herself.

"What was that? Were you poisoned?" He demanded, facing her and scanning her form.

Sara shook her head weakly. "No, it's really okay. That seal just takes a lot out of me."

Kakashi's lone eye flashed at that. "Then why did you use it? This is your first combat, you shouldn't compromise yourself. What seal was that?"

"Er...an indestructible protection seal?" She mumbled sheepishly, looking down.

Kakashi's eye narrowed, frowning. "What's the name of the seal?"

Sara bit her lip, shaking her head. "Well...I don't have a proper name for it yet. I just call it protection seal."

He looked at her incredulously, his eye widening and his brow rising high up. "That was an original seal?" He exclaimed, shock visible on his usually calm demeanor. He looked at the seal on the ground again, then the seal on paper that she was holding.

He exhaled exasperatedly. "Seals." He muttered, shaking his head. "Of course, your secret skill had to be a complicated and advanced one that might need clearance."

He cleared his throat and talked in a louder voice, addressing her. "Sara, you need to show me all the seals you brought for this mission. We'll talk about this later when we reach our destination."

Sara's nerves fluttered, feeling like she was in trouble. She knew that sealing required higher level skills, and you'd need all kinds of clearances to get books on them in the libraries. But sealing was one of the things she was really passionate about in this world. She hoped that she wasn't in too much trouble. She bit her lip as her mind raced with possible excuses she could say about where she learned these things.

"She wasn't keeping it a secret sensei." Sasuke piped up, surprising everyone present. But he held a firm gaze on Kakashi. "She used to make her seals in front of everyone in class back then and read about them in the open. She just didn't use them in exercises so Iruka sensei couldn't note them down."

Sara grabbed his hand, squeezing it softly. Sasuke glanced at her, and she mouthed the words 'Thank you', keeping her head down. Sasuke sighed and shrugged.

Kakashi blinked, nodding at that. "Okay, that's good then." He paused, then turned to Sara. "You'd still need to talk to me about it Sara." His voice softened, looking down at the fidgeting girl. "You're not in trouble. Don't worry. It's just that if the higher ups hear about this, they might restrict you. So let's talk about what you should do. Okay?"

Sara nibbled on her bottom lip nervously, but she nodded her head. Kakashi ruffled her hair fondly, giving her a small reassuring smile. For Kakashi, even if Sara was mysterious and deliberately hid her abilities, she had never given any hint of disloyalty or menace. As a matter of fact, she had always demonstrated proper kunoichi values and actions. She worked hard in every mission and she adored her friends and their team. She brought out more personality from the shy Hyuga girl, she always involved Naruto and made him feel acknowledged, and she even managed to drag the anti-social Uchiha to whatever they were up to. She even went the extra mile of buying him food. Kakashi knew she wasn't that well-off so the gesture was greatly appreciated.

She grew up in Konoha and she never stepped out of the village. All her files and records are out for everyone to see. She was a normal civilian with a big heart and a great potential. Kakashi knew that maybe she could just be a really good spy, born and raised to lie. But Kakashi's gut told him that Sara would be a traitor as much as Kakashi would hate Icha Icha. Maybe he was being biased, because the sweet girl had done nothing else but glow in everybody's presence. She was a beacon in their team. So Kakashi was comfortable enough to trust in that gut instinct.

It was still strange that she hid her skills though. Every ninja prided themselves with their abilities. So Kakashi would still need to talk to her to at least get an understanding of what she was trying to do.

On the other side, Naruto was eyeing Sasuke scornfully, noting the disheveled appearance of the avenger even after he made the first attack.

Sasuke noticed this, smirking as he caught Naruto's eye. "Hey, are you hurt, Mr. Scaredy Cat?"

Naruto balled his fists as he glowered back at Sasuke. "Whatever, Stalker! Watching Sara chan like a hawk in the academy!"

"YOU-"

Sara's hold on Sasuke's hand tightened, pulling him back as he tried to descend towards Naruto. "Sasuke. No." She threw a stern look at Naruto too. "And quit it too Naruto."

"But he started it Sara chan!" Naruto complained, stomping his feet angrily.

Sasuke shook his head, pulling his hand away from Sara. He shot one more glare at Naruto before walking away. "Hn."

Sighing, Sara approached Naruto and eyed his bleeding hand. Somehow, the brothers still managed to scratch him when they appeared behind him. "Does that feel alright?" She asked softly, worry shining in her eyes.

Kakashi grimly crinkled his nose as he stared at Naruto's hand. "There's poison on these guys' nails. We need to take out the poison right away."

Naruto blinked in confusion, his brows furrowing as he stared down at his hand. He was used to his fast, regenerative rate, so he might have been conditioned to feel a little invincible.

"We have to open up your wound and leech out the poisoned blood. Don't move that much or the poison will spread throughout your body." Kakashi told him. Naruto gasped, his face morphing into horror. He immediately turned to Sara and shoved his hand on hers.

Kakashi decided to ignore his queer minions and proceeded to address the elephant in the room. He turned towards their client, who had been eerily silent. "By the way Tazuna San."

Tazuna jumped in surprise, his eyes widening at the sudden mention of his name. "W-What is it?"

He tilted his head and regarded the older man seriously. "I need to talk to you."

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Kakashi tied up their attackers securely to a tree.

"These guys are chuunin class ninja from the Hidden Village of Mist." He informed the rest of them, eyeing the two brothers who were currently glaring vehemently at them. "They are ninjas known to keep fighting no matter the cost."

One of them sneered at Kakashi. "How are you able to detect our action?"

"Well because he's Kakashi." Sara said with a big smile, waving her hand to her sensei's direction. She was in the process of bleeding out Naruto's hand to extract the poison.

Naruto rolled his eyes at her. "Not now Sara chan!"

Sara sighed theatrically, making a face. "Fine. Because of the puddle then."

Kakashi smiled back at her and nodded approvingly. "Correct. So you did notice after all, Sara chan." Sara grinned at him shyly. She was still a little embarrassed at being told off earlier. But she wasn't one to dwell. Besides, she always knew that someone would call her out because of her seal making at some point. It was for the best that the one who did was her teacher. So she was still happy at the way things turned out.

Kakashi turned back to the brothers. "It hasn't rained for the past few days, and it's sunny today, so a water puddle shouldn't exist."

"Honestly, you guys should have set the puddle up by the bridge. That way, the water could look like it came from the river." Sara piped up, her eyes focused on Naruto's bleeding hand. Naruto winced but he didn't pull his hand away.

Kakashi threw her an amused look. "Good job advising the enemy on how to assassinate better."

Sara winked at him and smirked. "We're ninja. It's what we do. Rub on our enemy's faces why they suck. We can brag to nobody else anyway precisely _because_ we're ninja."

Naruto frowned at that. "That's bad sportsmanship though, talking them down _after_ you defeat them."

"There's no sportsmanship in ninja work." Sasuke commented from the far side, his arms crossed and his eyes glued at the tied-up enemies.

"There are morals and values though." Naruto replied, throwing a disapproving look at Sasuke. Sasuke just shrugged.

"Anyway, we're getting off topic." Kakashi interrupted the beginning of another argument. It was a harmless topic, but he really needed to confront their client first. "I needed to know who the target for these two was. That's why I let the enemies move about first, just to see who they will attack."

Tazuna visibly swallowed. Kakashi stared at him. The client's obvious nerves were a bad sign. "W-What do you mean?" Tazuna stuttered, not even bothering to look indignant at the coming accusation. He looked pale and nervous.

"In other words, were you being targeted or someone from our ninja group? We have not heard anything about you being targeted by ninja. Your request was to protect you from armed groups like gangs and robbers." Kakashi pressed, watching the man blanch and shiver at his words. "This is a mission that's above a B rank. Our job was to support and guard you until you completed the bridge. If ninja are our enemy, this mission would have been an expensive B rank. It looks like you have your reasons, but it only troubles us if you lie in your request details. This wasn't part of the mission."

Kakashi gestured towards the kids. "As you can see, D rank missions employ _children_. You purposely allowed these kids to protect you, knowing that you need to be protected from dangerous people."

Tazuna looked faint, his eyes widening as he glanced at the kids again who were merely looking up at him with wide eyes. Or at least, Sara was.

Naruto and Sasuke both scowled at Kakashi.

"We're not _kids."_ Naruto grunted, gritting his teeth angrily. He wanted to jump up to make his point but Sara held his hand firmly. Sasuke nodded stiffly, his fists clenched.

Sara threw a disapproving look at the both of them. "Of course we are. We're _12._ Maybe we're mature. But we're still children."

"Aw Sara chan!" Naruto complained, looking at her with teary blue eyes. "Don't side with Kakashi! I thought you're always going to side with me!"

Sara shrugged and tried to keep a straight face. "Well not anymore since you froze during battle." Naruto flinched as she said that, looking hurt by her accusation. It was a low blow, yes. But Sara was encouraging him to make his nindo soon. She was starting to worry because it didn't look like he was going to. She wondered if her friendship with him made him feel a little too comfortable. He needed to realize that he had been weak and useless. He needed to be pushed to make his vow, the same promise that would change a lot of hearts in the future, and thus save a lot of lives.

"S-Sorry." Naruto mumbled, looking down with remorse. Sara almost gave in. She really didn't want to discourage him. Not when everyone had done nothing but that in his whole life. Not when his big blue eyes were brimming with unshed tears. Sara had faith in him. Completely and irrevocably. Not just because she knew that Naruto would inevitably become a hero in the future. But because even if she didn't know what would happen, this boy in front of her had the biggest heart and the biggest determination. There was simply no doubt that there was no stopping him when he set his eyes on a goal.

But right now, he was just a little boy. He was afraid and confused. And Sara would prick him a little if it meant giving him his push.

So Sara simply shrugged, letting go of his hand and standing up. She looked down at him as she crossed her arms lazily. "Eh it's okay. Sasuke and I will protect you on our way back to the village, in case we get attacked again."

Sasuke raised his brows at her questioningly. This kind of comment normally came from him, and Sara wasn't one to bait Naruto. But Sara was determined to push Naruto. She almost grimaced at her words. It was demeaning and arrogant to say it, but she was relieved to see Naruto's stunned expression, morphing into shame, then into determination.

Naruto's expression hardened. He stood up as well and stared straight into Sara's eyes. He raised his chin, his lips trembling. He was giving her a betrayed look. But Sara just stared back coldly, not breathing. She knew that if she exhaled, she would end up crying. She was goading _the hero_ of this story after all. But more than that, she was insulting her sweet, bubbly friend.

Naruto was just staring up at her, so Sara decided to give him one more push, even if she felt like crumbling under his sad gaze. Shrugging and starting to turn away, she called out to Kakashi. "This sure is a burden. Let's go back to the village to cure Naruto."

Naruto finally snapped at that. His hands flew to his holster as he grabbed a kunai. Sasuke twitched and moved to step in front of Sara, probably assuming that Naruto was about to stab her. Noticing this, she threw Sasuke a bewildered look, which was enough to make him pause in his advance. She couldn't believe that Sasuke actually thought Naruto would hurt her in any way. Sasuke still had some trust issues to work through then. She mentally set up their morning trainings to include not only chakra sensing but also more teamwork exercises. _Stupid exasperating Team 7,_ she inwardly groaned.

Sasuke was frozen because of her warning look, but Naruto continued to move, so he looked away from Sara's glare and raised a hand, probably to stop Naruto striking her. But before he could do anything else, Naruto raised the kunai high up and brought it down to his own open poisoned palm.

Sasuke's mouth actually dropped open at that, probably too surprised at their blonde teammate's antics. On Sasuke's part, he was scolding himself for assuming that Naruto would do anything harmful. _Of course_ it was just something idiotic and dramatic again. He shouldn't have assumed anything else.

Sara shot Sasuke an I-Told-You-So smirk, which he rolled his eyes to. He stepped away and resumed watching the bound enemies. He would determinedly ignore the Dobe, whatever show he was presenting. With an audible "tsk", he turned away and crossed his arms grumpily.

"Why am I so different?" Naruto sobbed, clutching his bleeding hand with tears forming in his sea eyes. "...Why am I always... Damn it."

Sara stepped away from him, giving him the space he needed to clear his thoughts. She pressed her lips together to keep herself from smiling. A wave of relief flooded her chest as she watched _the_ Naruto she knew; brave, determined, and stubborn.

Naruto turned back towards them, determination glinting from his wide blue eyes. His whisker marks looked as apparent as ever. He grinned his usual feral smile while digging the kunai deeper into his palm. Sara twitched at that, her hand raising on its own towards him.

But he only moved away from her, staring back defiantly. "I should be stronger. I've accomplished lots of missions and I've practiced techniques every day. I'm never going to do something that will require someone to help me. I'm never going to be frightened and try to back out of things. I'm not going to lose to Sasuke. Or to you, Sara! I vow that to this pain in my left hand. I'm going to protect the old man with this kunai." He declared, raising his bleeding hand proudly, his smile not even hinting the pain he must have been feeling for it.

His wound was really starting to look bad. So dropping all pretenses, Sara grabbed his palm against his will and smacked his head lightly. "Stop that. Why are you such a drama queen?! You'll end up infecting that hand!"

Kakashi sighed, staring at them with amusement. "Naruto, it's nice that you took out the poisoned blood so spiritedly...But you're going to die from loss of blood if any more comes out."

Naruto gasped, his face turning completely purple. Sasuke snorted, shaking his head exasperatedly at the scene.

In one single move, Naruto got Sara locked under his arm and he shoved his hand back to hers, frantically whispering for forgiveness and pleading for her to help him.

Sasuke closed his eyes from his corner, muttering "...annoying dobe."

Kakashi turned up at Naruto's side. He leaned over him and smiled innocently at the shaking boy. "It's not good if you don't stop it right away. Seriously."

Naruto started flailing his arms around and screamed. "No no no no! I can't die like this. Sara chan! Sara chan! I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry! Please save me!"

Chuckling weakly, she gently took his injured hand and patted it gently. Naruto's lips were still trembling, but he stilled under her touch, taking short shallow breaths in small whispers.

"Calm down, okay? It'll be okay, promise." Sara told him softly, her face morphing back to her normal sunny expression, her earlier arrogant demeanor vanishing from her face completely.

Blowing out a breath, Sara focused on Naruto's hand and willed her hand to flicker green. She started to sing a tune before she touched his hand, incase her chakra molded all wrong again and she ended up hurting him. The soothing melody relaxed Naruto completely, the subtle chakra within it taming his usual energetic flow. When her healing chakra touched his hand, it was cool and meditative. He sighed tiredly, feeling all the pain disappear.

Kakashi sucked in a breath as he watched this, shooting another exasperated look at Sara.

"Sara, medical ninjutsu too? _Seriously?"_

Sara paused in her singing, grinning shyly at her teacher. "Mmmm...Sorry Kakashi sensei?"

Kakashi grumbled under his breath. "Unbelievable. Another form that might need clearance." He cleared his throat and shot her a bemused look. "We're definitely going to have that talk, Sara chan."

Sara winced slightly, but she nodded her head meekly at that. Naruto guffawed, looking amused.

"The one time that Sara chan gets scolded, it's because she's too awesome!"

Sara flushed red and lightly nudged Naruto to stay still. She kept her head down and refused to look at anyone's eyes while she healed him. She was slightly pouting.

Sasuke smirked, watching Naruto continue to goad Sara about her 'awesomeness'. It was probably his revenge on her for goading him earlier. But instead of insulting her, which would probably not get a real reaction from her, Naruto wisely chose to keep complimenting her instead, knowing that their talented teammate was very embarrassed about being directly praised. Kakashi just shook his head, muttering about "shy little girls." and "secretive kunoichis." and "heart attacks."

But he watched the process with fascination. It was obvious that Sara wasn't very adept to it yet. He could feel the light genjutsu in her song, probably as a back-up in case she messed up. Sara was clearly a very smart girl. She knew how to compensate the lack of skills by maneuvering around to what she was good at.

Soon, Naruto's hand was well and he breathed a big sigh of relief. "Whew! That was great Sara chan! I didn't feel hurt at all by it!"

He raised his hand and noticed that there was still a clear mark on his palm. "But Sara chan, I have a scar?"

"I'll remove it when we get back to Konoha." She said simply with a small smile. The scar was important after all. In the anime, Naruto would freak out again when Zabuza arrived. But he would see the scar and get over his fear, finally turning fearless in the rest of the series. Sara wasn't sure if Naruto would freak out again now. But in case he did, Sara left the scar there.

Sara sighed, feeling exhausted from all the plot control management. And this was just the first high rank mission. And this was just the first battle in that mission. There was a second one soon after they crossed the waters, against Zabuza himself. And another one at the bridge after a week or so. Sara briefly considered just standing there like Sakura did. If she stayed still, maybe she didn't need to do much damage control on anything she might change.

But she dismissed the idea when she imagined herself just standing at the sides like a cheerleader while her badass team gets the action. Damage control was worth it as long as she got to feel like a true kunoichi who spent all of her waking hours torturing herself around Konoha to get to where she was now. She wouldn't waste her chance. Being in team 7 just meant her challenge was greater.

Besides, she already caused some subtle changes anyway. Her team clearly acknowledged her. Sasuke and Naruto wouldn't come to save her like they did for Sakura in canon because they knew she could handle herself. She'd probably die if she actually stood still. Or they'd probably expect _her_ to be the one to come saving them. She chuckled to herself for a moment before dismissing that thought. The boys in her team as of now would get maimed first before they ask for help in combat.

Seeing that all of his little genins were fine now, Kakashi turned back to their client and started interrogating him. Sasuke inched closer to them to listen in.

Sara, on the other hand, kept Naruto beside her as she carefully cleaned up the wound. It wasn't bleeding now and the poison was completely out. It was probably completely fine now, but she didn't want to risk an infection.

"Sara chan." Naruto said, looking at her with a serious expression.

Sara blinked up at him, her eyes widening in panic as she regarded his injured hand once more. "What is it? Did I hurt you again? Sorry! I can sing again if you want?"

Naruto shook his head, grinning at her. "Naw. You did fine! Don't worry about that!" He paused, taking a deep breath as he stared at her directly. "What I want to say is...you can trust me next time Sara chan! I made my vow, see?" He held up his hand to show her the scar she deliberately left. "It's my promise! You, me and that teme will save lives together next time! Just like we practiced!" His expression became somber again as he exhaled frustratedly. "Sorry if I froze. I just...I was scared. If Kakashi sensei...we just. We could have died."

Sara marveled at the fact that Naruto was actually telling her this. Naruto was not as closed off as Sasuke, but he wouldn't just blurt out his weak moments to anyone like this. Perhaps Naruto really trusted her. Or maybe Sara had acknowledged him without a second thought before, so now he didn't want her to change her opinion of him. So he wanted her to understand.

It was touching, but saddening too. She didn't want Naruto to feel upset about it.

Sara put a comforting hand on his shoulder, squeezing fondly. "It's okay to be afraid Naruto. Everyone is afraid of dying. As ninja, we'll just grow into it as we get more death-defying missions. We'll be braver next time."

Naruto pouted, looking away with shame in his eyes. "But you weren't scared, Sara chan. Sasuke-teme, I could understand. They say the he saw his whole family die! But you and me, we never experienced that. But I froze, and you didn't."

Sara sighed. This was one of the consequences of being competent in their team. While she didn't directly compete with the boys, they always compared themselves to her, like she was the meter of being a good ninja. It was pressuring because she was far off from where she really wanted to be. And she was definitely far off from where they would be when the war comes. She had a feeling that no matter how hard she trained, she would never be up to that level. Heck, _the_ Sage of Six Paths gave them power. She knew that their idolism of her was just a childhood rivalry that they'd come to realize as silly in the future.

Not that she'd let them get away with it. She will work as hard as she could to be up to scratch, if nothing else. She already had some ideas on what she would form herself to be. But still, she wished they'd just look onto Kakashi, because he was the real strong ninja at the moment.

But if Naruto was feeling bad about it, then she couldn't let it pass.

She smiled warmly at the usually sunny boy and patted his hand lightly.

"I used to be scared." She admitted to him quietly. She wasn't sure if she should tell him about this. But he looked up at her with those troubled eyes, and she found that she didn't care if this caused her trouble later on. Naruto never dwelled on negative emotions by using them to push himself forward as motivation. But it didn't mean that he didn't feel bad about it anyway. This was a rare window he was showing her. He wasn't as thick headed as most would assume. He was just a little boy who also got hurt and who also had self-doubts, just like everyone else.

"I remember I was really sick when I was young." In her past life, but he didn't need to know that. "And I would often go to the hospital. I met a girl there, and we used to visit each other's rooms. We had the same sickness you see."

She closed her eyes, remembering the little girl she used to play with. She looked like an angel to her, so happy and radiant all the time. Sara could remember her pale blond hair, and the way she always tied her hair in a crown braid, circling her head like a halo. She had bright green eyes that danced with joy and warmth. She was very petite, and often times Sara wondered if the wind could blow her away. But she twirled around on a windy day at the hospital gardens, and Sara knew that the wind would merely caress the little angel, because she was special.

" _Melody! Melody! Let's visit the grandpas on the East Wing! They said they will tell us stories today!" The angel told her in a surprisingly soft voice, like a lullaby on a cold night. She pulled her out of her room, giggling excitedly with the brightest smile she had ever seen._

"Eh eh? You were sick Sara chan?!" Naruto exclaimed, his eyes wide.

Sara nodded, her eyes still dazed from the memory. "Yes. I was sick. I was young and I hated being sick. I wanted to play like the other kids. But I can't. So I was really miserable." She took a deep breath, her voice turning melancholic. "But she was there. She was sick like me. But unlike me, she was happy. She loved every day of her life. She didn't envy the other kids who could play outside. She was happy to stay inside and read books. She was happy for the rare times we could actually go out and feel the sun. She was happy if it was raining, and she will snuggle inside a thick blanket and tell me stories."

" _I want to play in the rain too." Melody said sadly, watching the lively kids at the window, jumping in puddles and laughing loudly. "Why do we have to be sick? Does God hate me? Why am I sick? Why aren't they sick?"_

 _The angel looked at her with her green eyes, frowning at what she said. She waved her hand, telling her to come sit beside her. Melody, sniffing and rubbing her teary eyes, sat beside the other girl, grumbling at the unfairness of it all._

" _Let's read a story Melody. I'll open the lamp and we can pretend we're having a camp fire!" She said with enthusiasm, handing her a book while she took the lamp from a small table._

 _Melody pouted and threw the book away, crossing her arms. "I already read that book! I don't want to read it again!"_

 _The angel tilted her head and opened the lamp anyway, putting it between them. "Then let's make our own story! We can make it however we want it to be!" The light of the lamp glowed on the other girl's face, her smile glimmering kindly, warming Melody's heart there and then._

Sara wasn't always as happy and optimistic as she was now. When she was between 4 or 5 years old in her past life, she was sad because she could never go anywhere else but at the hospital. Somehow, she knew that she was really sick. She knew that she was going to die. Her parents and the doctors always looked at her sadly.

But they also do that to the other girl. She knew they were the same. But her young mind was struck by how content the angel was. She was never upset. In fact, she played around and lapped up every minute of every day, as if she knew that the end was coming near.

"We were dying." She told Naruto, who gasped at the revelation. "Me and the girl. The kind of sickness we had..." She paused, remembering the days when they were both growing weaker, day by day. She grew sulkier and angrier the harder it became. But the other girl just grew happier.

" _Melody." Her mother called her, squeezing her hand softly. "Come on sweetie, you have to eat."_

 _Melody angrily shoved her plate away, feeling a shot of satisfaction as she watched the food splatter on the floor and the glass plate breaking against the tiles. "Why? I'm going to die anyway, aren't I mom?"_

 _Her mom sobbed, shaking her head quickly and tried to wrap her in an embrace. She struggled against it, glaring venomously at her parents. Her dad sighed, holding her arms firmly as he sighed tiredly._

" _Stop that Melody. Say sorry to your mother and eat your food."_

 _She was about to retort something nasty again when she heard the angel on the other table. Her eyes were closed but she held her mother's and father's hands. She had a small content smile on her face as she sniffed delightedly at the food in front of them._

" _Lead the prayer little angel." The girl's mom whispered. She perked up happily and started her prayer in a melodic voice._

" _Thank you for the world so sweet. Thank you for the food we eat. Thank you for the birds that sing, Thank you God for everything!"_

Naruto nudged her, waving a hand in front of her face. "Sara chaaaaan. Hellooooo? And then what happened?"

Sara giggled. "Sorry Naruto. I was just remembering." She cleared her throat and sighed. "Anyway. Our last year is almost up-"

Naruto inhaled sharply. "What do you mean your last year?! Were you supposed to die? But you're alive now?"

"We were only supposed to live until we're 5 years old." Sara said, her voice only a whisper now that Naruto had to lean in closer to hear her. "People with our sickness usually never last for longer."

Sara folder her hands and looked up at the sky, a serene look setting in her face. "I remember her last day. I was playing with her the afternoon before. We were allowed to go out at the hospital garden. She looked really pale and she looked thinner than ever. Her eyes were sunken, and she was shivering. But she still looked happy."

" _Melody, when I die, I will be with the wind in the sky." The angel told her as she watched the sky. "I will travel with the clouds, making funny shapes so other children can guess them. I will fly around the world, swimming across the sky and go cloud hopping!"_

 _Melody shook her head, her eyes widening. "Don't say that! Maybe...maybe we don't have to die yet! We can't die yet!"_

 _The angel just tilted her head and smiled at her. "We will all die someday. It's nothing to be afraid of."_

 _Melody's lips trembled. "But...But but but-"_

" _We're only afraid to die because we're afraid of what we'll leave behind." Sometimes, Melody would look at the little angel and wonder if she really was just a 4-year old kid. She always sounded wise. "Maybe something unfinished. Maybe something unfulfilled."_

 _Melody's face scrunched up at that. "Un...Unful...Unfulfilled?"_

" _Yeah! Like something you didn't do before you die. Did you read that book you said you wanted to read in the hospital library?"_

 _Melody blinked slowly. "Umm...no?"_

" _Did you get that ice cream you wanted at the cafeteria today?"_

" _...no?"_

" _Did you tell your parents that you love them today?"_

" _I...er...No."_

 _The angel frowned at her disapprovingly. "Then you gotta tell them when they visit later! You never know if we'll still wake up tomorrow!"_

" _Oh...uhmmm...okay." Melody mumbled, thinking about that. She did love her parents, even if she was angry at them all the time. She definitely didn't want to die without telling them that she loved them._

 _The angel jumped up, wobbling slightly on her feet before pulling Melody up with her. "But before that, we're going to make the most of today! Let's have tea under that tree! Maybe we can invite some grandmas and grandpas to join us!"_

 _Melody smiled, giggling. "Okay."_

 _The next day, the angel didn't show up to meet her at the garden anymore._

"She's up there now." Sara told Naruto, pointing up at the clouds. "Sometimes, I wonder if I should have died at that time instead. She was the nicer kid after all. I was bratty. But then I thought about what she said. If I died then, I would have been unfulfilled. I still didn't do everything I wanted to do. But that kid..."

She smiled at Naruto. "She made the most out of every day of her life. So she was happy." She held both of Naruto's hands. "I'm not afraid, Naruto, because every day is a complete day for me. Maybe I still have some dreams, but I treat my days one day at a time. Of course, it would be too bad if I actually die. There's still so much of this world that I want to experience. But if I die, then I die. At least I know that I went down doing my best at everything that I do."

She took a deep breath. "So today, let's make it complete. Naruto, I want you to know that I love you."

Naruto blinked up at her in surprise. Sara just laughed and raised her head. "Sasuke kun!"

Sasuke looked over at them, disrupted from listening in on Kakashi's interrogation.

Sara winked at him. "I love you Sasuke kun."

Sasuke immediately flushed, his whole face turning completely red. He scowled at her and turned away.

Naruto snickered at him. Kakashi, hearing that declaration, paused and glanced at her curiously.

Sara raised her hand. "Sensei, I love you!" Kakashi raised his brows, looking amused. She looked at Tazuna and beamed. "Tazuna san, I care about you." Tazuna, who was clearly having a hard time during Kakashi's interrogation, managed to give her a small smile.

Then she frowned at the Demon brothers. "I'm sorry but I don't feel anything for the two of you. I hate you a little for trying to harm my team but I could forgive you since you're just doing your jobs."

The enemies looked at her bewilderedly. Naruto laughed out loud.

Turning back to Naruto, she opened her arms wide. "You see, Naruto? If I die now, at least I told the people I love that I love them."

Naruto looked thoughtful at that, but he nodded anyway. "Okay, so then I love you Sara chan?"

She grinned, nodding approvingly.

"Oy Teme! You're okay!"

Sasuke pretended not to hear them, his ears still red.

"Kakashi sensei, you're awesome. There, I said it. Still not your fan though."

Kakashi's eye crinkled in his usual happy smile, shaking his head at their trip. He knew that Sara was once again helping out Naruto to sort out his values like she always did. So he let them be. He'll explain the situation with Tazuna later to them. Or perhaps Sara already guessed about a lot of parts anyway so he'll just get her to explain it to Naruto.

Then Naruto jumped up on his feet and pointed at Tazuna.

"And you old man! I also care about you! I made a promise with this injured hand!" He showed them the scar proudly. Sara giggled, realizing that leaving the scar there had its purpose after all.

"We will save you and guard you from these bad guys until your bridge is complete!" He declared, hands on hips.

Kakashi sighed, shaking his head in disagreement. "Naruto, you can't just decide that-"

"Actually sensei, I agree with Naruto." Sara piped up, also getting to her feet. "We now know that terrible men are after Tazuna-san. If we leave him now, he's in danger. I say we continue this mission."

Sasuke walked over to them, still looking sulky, but also a touch determined. "I also agree with this."

Kakashi watched the unfaltering expressions on his team of genins. He was fine with continuing the mission. But having them with him made him a little wary of it. He was an ex-ANBU captain, but he had 3 kids with him. If someone powerful actually went after them, he'll have trouble trying to save everyone. But he also knew that the 3 wouldn't back down on this. He had ultimate authority of course, but he had the feeling that they'd actually go without him if he refused.

Sara tilted her head innocently. "Besides sensei, you know you can handle this with your eyes closed." She gasped in a show of surprise. "Oh! One of them is already closed and you still could have kicked everyone down."

Kakashi rolled his eye. "Fine fine. No need to butter me up. We'll continue for now while we gather more information about this mission."

"YATTA!" Naruto yelped excitedly. "Stick with us old man, you'll witness heroes in the making."

"Watch him and you'll witness a dumbass freezing in battle." Sasuke scoffed at him.

Naruto just stuck his tongue out. "Just you watch Teme. Next time, you'll freeze because my behind will always be infront of you from now on!"

"Ohhh here we go." Sara groaned, stepping away from the boys to block out their new argument.

She looked up at the clouds and spotted a cloud shaped like a bird.

 _Oooooh look angel, I see a bird!_

After smiling up at the sky, she concentrated her gaze forwards again. The mission was not over yet. A stronger enemy would come after their boat ride later. She watched Naruto who was not sad anymore, and Sasuke who looked as competent as ever. Kakashi stood tall behind them, ready to jump in his team's defense at any notice. And of course, she was all prepared too. She knew they were all ready for anything.

Taking a deep breath, she smiled widely as they reached the docks.

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